Four Workers Killed, Two Critically Injured in Palghar Nitrogen Leak Incident

On August 18, 2025, a tragic incident occurred at a pharmaceutical factory in Palghar district of Maharashtra, India. A nitrogen gas leak at the Medley Pharma plant resulted in the deaths of four workers and left two others in critical condition.

According to the authorities, the gas leak happened between 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm on that day, seriously affecting six workers present at the facility. The victims were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, where four of them - Kalpesh Raut, Bengali Thakur, Dheeraj Prajapati, and Kamlesh Yadav - succumbed to their injuries around 6:15 pm. The two other injured workers, Rohan Shinde and Nilesh Hadal, remain in critical condition and are being closely monitored in the ICU.

In the aftermath of the incident, the Boisar police have registered a case against four senior employees of the pharma company under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder". The investigation is currently underway, though no arrests have been made so far.

Local authorities and officials from the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health have visited the site and initiated a preliminary probe to determine the exact cause of the nitrogen gas leak. They are examining whether there were any lapses in the safety protocols in place for such processes at the plant.