Chhattisgarh Vedanta power plant blast: Death toll rises to 23

On: April 19, 2026 2:15 PM

The police have filed an FIR under sections that deal with causing death by carelessness and operating machines without due care.

The number of people killed in the blast at the Vedanta power plant in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district rose to 23 on Saturday, when two more workers died from their injuries. Twelve others are still being treated at different hospitals, officials said.

Three of them are in a serious state

Naveen Jindal, an entrepreneur, said that filing a FIR against Anil Agarwal, head of the Vedanta Group, before any review into what happened is very troubling.

According to Sakti Superintendent of Police Prafull Thakur, two more hurt workers died this morning while being treated at different hospitals. What did Thakur say to PTI? He said that one of them was Subrata Kumar Jana, who was being treated at Raigarh Medical College, and the other was Upendra Sah, who was getting help at Kalda Hospital, Raipur.

He said that Jana was from Medinipur in West Bengal and Sah was from Garhwa in Jharkhand.

Officials said that both of them were burnt about 90% of the way through.On April 14, an explosion happened in a steel tube bringing high-pressure steam from the boiler to the turbine at the Singhitarai village-based Vedanta Ltd power plant. Several workers were badly burnt in the blast.

Four workers died at the scene

Officials say that four workers died at the scene of the accident and nine others died soon after being hurt. Seven more workers who had been hurt died in hospitals on April 15, and one more worker died at a hospital in Raipur on the night of April 16.

Seven workers from West Bengal, five from Chhattisgarh, four from Jharkhand, three from Uttar Pradesh, and two each from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were killed.

A health source said that of the 12 injured, six are in the Jindal Hospital in Raigarh, two are in each of the Balaji Metro Hospital and Apex Hospital in Raigarh, and one is at Raigarh Medical College. Another worker who was hurt is being treated at Shri Shankara Hospital in Raipur.

Three of these hurt workers situations is not stable

According to the police, a FIR has been filed for causing death by carelessness and irresponsible behaviour with machines.Eight to ten people have been named in the FIR. These include Vedanta Group boss Anil Agarwal and plant head Devendra Patel. “More names will be added if more people are found to be responsible during the investigation,” SP Thakur had said earlier.

Police said Thursday that a preliminary technical study into the explosion found that too much fuel building up in the boiler caused pressure to rise, which set off the explosion.

According to a study by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Sakti, the blast was mostly caused by excessive fuel buildup, which created excessive pressure.

Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai told the Commissioner of the Bilaspur division to look into what happened after it happened.

On Friday, the state’s General Administration Department issued an order appointing the Commissioner, Bilaspur Division, as the official in charge of investigating the accident in greater depth.

The Sakti district government has also asked for a judicial investigation into what happened.

The Congress wants stronger charges of negligent killing not amounting to murder to be brought against the person.

Jindal a businessman wrote on ‘X’ on Saturday morning

“The tragedy in Chhattisgarh is deeply painful.” Things have been lost by 20 people. It is imperative that the families get fair pay, have their incomes supported, and an in-depth probe be conducted. But putting @AnilAgarwal_Ved Ji’s name in the FIR before there is any probe is very worrying. Coming from a poor and backward town, he worked hard to start a global business from scratch. He had nothing to do with how that plant worked. If there is an accident in a PSU plant or on the railways, do we call the Chairman? We don’t. The business industry must also follow the same rules. Look into it first. Use proof to decide who is responsible. Then do something. To reach #ViksitBharat, India needs people like Shri Anil Agarwal to keep putting money into projects and making things. “Investors must trust the system for that to happen,” he said.