Indian man among four charged over Doha restaurant blast

An Indian and three other foreign nationals were today charged with negligence of duty over a deadly blast at a Turkish restaurant here that killed 11 expatriates, including five Indians, in February.
The Public Prosecution charged an Indian, an Egyptian and two Turkish men for the blast that tore through the Hala Istanbul Restaurant on February 27, leaving 35 others injured.
The four persons were charged with negligence in undertaking their work duties, which caused the loss of the lives, severe injury to many, risked the safety of others and caused undue destruction of the material assets of others.
The accused are to be held temporarily in jail until the hearing of the case, the Gulf Times reported.

The Indian man, who was working as supervisor at Qatar Fuel (Woqod), has not been identified. The Egyptian national was employed as supervisor at Qatar Gas Group, while the two Turkish men were a baker and an accountant at the restaurant.
The Indian victims of the blast have been identified as Riyas Kizhakemanolil, Abdul Saleem Palangad, Zakaria Padinjare Anakandi, Venkatesh and Shaikh Babu.

Four Nepali nationals and two people from the Philippines were also killed in the explosions.
The prosecution has accused the Indian man of negligence in reporting to the distribution department at Woqod to stop gas supply to the restaurant until the maintenance work was completed and an inspection report submitted by the company concerned. This was to ensure compliance with the required standards and safety regulations.

The Egyptian has been charged with negligence for connecting the restaurant's apparatuses with the new gas line without any check-up of the maintenance works and without the issuance of an accomplishment certificate by the parties concerned.
A fire expert at the Ministry of Interior gave a report, stating that the main cause of the fire and explosion was a gas leak from the oven of the restaurant due to negligence in attending to it.
The gas explosion damaged other buildings in the vicinity too apart from wrecking a number of vehicles.