14 August,2016 07:49 AM IST | | Vinod Kumar Menon
RTI responses acquired by mid-day reveal conflicting causes for City Kinara blaze, presented by Fire Brigade, HPCL and PWD; confusion likely to lengthen parents' struggle for justice
Ten months after a blaze that started on the mezzanine floor of Kurla's City Kinara restaurant, killing eight persons, seven of whom were teenaged students at the nearby Don Bosco College, an Andheri-based lawyer/activist says that Vinoba Bhave Police Station have conducted a shoddy investigation.
Bernadette D'Souza and Erwin D'Souza
Soon after the fire Godfrey Pimenta (who is close to the family of one of the deceased) had filed a series of RTI applications with the various agencies involved - HPCL, BMC, Mumbai FIre department, PWD etc (copies with mid-day). He now says that their responses are contradictory in nature and show that the cops haven't conducted a detailed investigation enough to allow the prosecution to nail the owner of City Kinara Sudesh Hegde, and tenant Sharad Tripathi.
A case against the two has been lodged under sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common intention) of IPC. A charge sheet was filed at the Metropolitan Magistrate Court by the cops in January this year.
(From left) Friends Sharjeel Shaikh, Brian Fernando, Sajid Chowdhari and Akash Thapar
Lapse no 1
Pimenta says that according to the cops, Tripathi had secured a fire NOC for the restaurant. However, the Mumbai Fire Brigade in its RTI response said this was not the case. The charge sheet, Pimenta adds, says that the hotel managed to get shops and establishments and health licence without a mandatory fire NOC from the local 'L' ward office.
The irony is that the local ward office, instead of cancelling the licence on account of the fire and subsequent revelations of illegal construction inside the restaurant, said in its RTI response that the licence was cancelled on account of the hotel being found shut in January 2016, when an inspection was done.
Taha Shaikh
That the restaurant's mezzanine floor (where the fire started) was illegal, as per BMC's Development Control Regulation, should have been used only for storing inventory and not converted into a dining area, raises concerns that the officials at the local ward office had connived with the hotelier. "Why was this not probed?" Pimenta asked.
Lapse no 2
The second lapse is the fire reports submitted by three different agencies (Fire Brigade, HPCL and PWD). While the Fire Department claims that the fire was caused by leaked and accumulated LPG gas from a defective main valve /regulator assembly of an LPG gas cylinder when it came in contact with an unknown spark, HPCL has a contrary statement. HPCL's report stated that the fire was not due to gas leakage as there was no leakage and it might be due to short circuit. The PWD's report remained inconclusive. The PWD stated that the cause of fire could not be ascertained as the entire mezzanine floor was gutted in the fire.
(middle) Jacqueline D'Souza, mother of Erwin D'Souza, at his funeral on October 17, 2016
Lapse no 3
Police investigation revealed that every alternate day, cylinders were supplied to the said hotel by M/s Laxmi Gas Agency an HPCL authorised dealer in Kurla (E). However, in its RTI response, HPCL has said the restaurant was neither its customer nor was it a registered customer of the said agency. Interestingly, the over 500-page charge sheet doesn't mention any action by either the cops or HPCL against the said LPG dealer for black marketing cylinders, even after a recommendation by the Mumbai Fire brigade.
A video from the CCTV placed on the mezzanine floor of City Kinara, which was gutted in the fire. Besides the seven students. Arvind Kanojia (32), a civil engineer with M/s Sterling Engineering company, was also killed
Pimenta asks that if Kinara was not an HPCL customer, why were the oil company officials allowed to inspect the site and even submit a report. "Moreover, a two-page note in which HPCL highlighted six points which said there was no gas leakage and that the fire could be a result of short circuit has been admitted and made part of the charge sheet, thereby benefiting the accused," Pimenta says.
Now, Pimenta and the families of the eight who died in the fire have approached the State Lokayukta demanding a reinvestigation into the fire. Pimenta's NGO, the Watchdog Foundation has now demanded a CBI probe into the case.
The cops say
A senior police officer who supervised the probe, on condition of anonymity, said, "We have submitted a fool-proof charge sheet. What is being referred here by the activist are expert opinions, which they will discuss in court during the trial. The fire department report is conclusive, which clearly states that there was a gas leak and the ignition (through a short circuit) might have cause the fire. The hotelier's actions are a fit case for a trial under section 304 of the IPC and we have booked him under other relevant sections."
Jacinta D'Souza (48), mother of Bernadette Savio D'Souza said , "It is unfortunate that the police have done a shoddy investigation in our kids' death. They, instead of ascertaining the exact reason for fire, have submitted an incomplete and inconclusive charge sheet which will only benefit the accused to go Scott free and the trial is yet to begin. We want Lokayukta to intervene and give justice to us."
