Of the 25 Chinese employees of the Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation who were detained by the Kolkata police on Thursday morning, 22 boarded the flight to their home country today.

Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation of China was involved in the construction of a power plant of Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco) at Korba in Chattisgarh, where a chimney collapse on September 23 left 45 workers dead.

These workers were scheduled to take a flight to Dhaka on their return journey to China when they were detained after the Ministry of Home Affairs did not give them the necessary permission.

“They were detained and interrogated, but were later cleared. While only 22 of them left today, all of them are free to go anywhere,” Shakil Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Security Control, told The Indian Express.

Mao Siwei, Chinese Consul General in Kolkata, however, blamed an “information gap” between the MHA and the local police for the hold up.

“The group has to return to China before October 31. But they had to stay back on Thursday because the Kolkata police did not have the necessary clearance from the MHA. It was an information gap that has been cleared now. However, what I knew was that all 25 people had left. I will have to check,” said Mao.

Mao also denied reports that the Chinese employees were on the run after the accident. “After the collapse, the local people were angry and the police told them to move out of the site for some time. A few days later, they went back to Korba,” said the Chinese consul.