Pub fire: 2 BMC officials arrested; charge-sheet filed

Police today arrested two more persons in the December 29 Kamala Mills fire incident, taking the number of persons arrested in the case to 14.
N M Joshi Marg police today arrested Dinesh Y Mahale, sub-engineer, south ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and Sandip S Shinde, assistant divisional fire officer, Worli division, a police official said.
Police also filed a 2,700-page charge-sheet in a local court against eleven persons, arrested earlier, for offences under section 304 of IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and other sections.
These accused include owners of Kamala Mills compound and those of the two pubs where the fire broke out.

However, the charge sheet against Rajendra Patil, a fire brigade officer who is among the arrested, will be filed after getting sanction for his prosecution, a police officer said.
Fourteen persons were killed and more than 21 were injured when fire engulfed two adjoining rooftop pubs -- Mojo's Bistro and 1 Above -- in Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai last year.

Police examined 260 witnesses during the investigation, said S Jayakumar, Additional Commissioner of Police.
According to an inquiry report by the BMC commissioner, the fire started due to flying charcoal embers from illegally served hookah at Mojo's Bistro, and the situation aggravated because of the unauthorised alterations made at both the pubs, which made the fire spread fast and blocked the exit.

It was alleged that the concerned ward officers as well as fire brigade officers had overlooked illegal alterations on the premises, which made the place hazardous.