Kamla Mills fire: SC refuses interim bail to restaurateur

The Supreme Court today dismissed an interim bail plea of Yug Tuli, the co-owner of the Mojo's Bistro restaurant and an accused in the December, 2017 fire incident at Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai in which 14 people were killed.

Tuli had filed the writ petition in the apex court seeking interim bail till the bail application before the Bombay High Court was decided.

The Maharashtra government opposed Tuli's plea saying that the Bombay High Court had last week rejected his bail plea and therefore the present writ petition filed by him seeking interim relief has become infructous.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan today said that since Bombay High Court had rejected his plea on April 27, he can challenge that order through an appeal.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Tuli, said that he was the co-owner of the restaurant situated in the compound, where the fire incident had taken place, and the other accused have been granted bail by the courts.

"He should be given at least interim bail till the appeal against the high court order is adjudicated by the apex court," Rohatgi said.

Maharashtra's standing counsel Nishant Katneshwar opposed the plea and said the accused has even filed an appeal against the high court order.

The bench said it will look into the aspect of interim bail when the appeal is taken up for hearing.

Tuli had claimed that the high court bench, which is hearing his bail matter, is seized of various bail petitions and it would take some time for his plea to be decided.

He had also sought direction that his bail application be decided by the high court expeditiously.

The high court had on April 27 rejected his bail plea saying that it will pass a detailed order later.

Tuli, who was arrested in mid-January, had approached the high court after his bail plea was rejected by the sessions court on April 11.

In his plea before the high court, Tuli had claimed that the tragedy occurred due to the "mistake" of the staff at "1 Above", the other restaurant that was gutted in the blaze on the intervening night of December 28-29.

He had claimed as per the police inquiry, none of the guests at his restaurant were among the dead.

The state government had, however, opposed the bail plea before the high court and said there was gross negligence on the part of Tuli and all the other accused.

It had submitted that as per the inquiry reports of the police as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the fire was caused by the flying embers emanating from a hookah being served illegally at Mojo's Bistro.

Tuli had claimed that he had no role in the day-to-day operations of the hookah parlour. A total of 14 persons have been arrested in the case and booked under various sections of the IPC, including those related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence.

The accused include the owners of the Kamala Mills compound, Mojo Bistro and 1 Above and two BMC officials.

On the fateful night, a massive fire had swept through the two resto-pubs at the Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai, resulting in the death of 14 people.