Relatives sobbed outside the mortuary of the Maulana Azad Medical College here waiting for the bodies of their loved ones as police investigation into the Anaj Mandi fire gathered momentum on Monday.
A court sent the property owner, Rehan, and manager of the building, Furkan to 14-day police custody. Metropolitan Magistrate Manoj Kumar accepted the police's plea seeking their custodial interrogation.
Police had arrested the two and registered a case under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire) of the IPC. The case was transferred to the Crime Branch.
On Monday morning, a fire broke out in the same building where the blaze had erupted on Sunday killing 43 people, Delhi Fire Service officials said.
Some material stacked inside the building had caught fire. However, the blaze was brought under control within 20 minutes, they said.
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At the site of Sunday's blaze in which 43 people were killed and 16 injured, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police collected evidence from the building using 3D laser scan technology in order to reconstruct the incident of fire for investigation.
A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) also visited the site and collected samples from the four-storey building that didn't have fire safety clearance but housed a number of illegal manufacturing units and had stored flammable material such as cardboard boxes, plastic sheets and rexine.
This is the second time that the Delhi Police is using the 3D laser scan technology for investigation.
The police had used the same technology to probe the massive fire in February in Karol Bagh's Hotel Arpit Palace that killed 17 people.
There was chaos outside the mortuary at the hospital where the autopsies of those killed in the Anaj Mandi fire incident were performed, as family members waited to be handed over the bodies of their loved ones.
Confusion prevailed among the victims' families about how the bodies will be transported back home, with most of them opposing the government's arrangement of sending them back to their native villages in special coaches by train
Since 36 of the 43 deceased hailed from Bihar, the state government had initially made arrangements with the railways to ferry the bodies in a special coach. However, the families said it was difficult for them to transport the bodies in trains.
Family members and relatives also had a heated exchange with hospital authorities on the issue. Most of the 43 people killed were migrant labourers whose families do not have the financial means to transport the bodies to their villages from the railway stations.
"We are not happy about travelling by train. Train would stop at Samastipur station and our village Barijana is another 70 km from there," said Mohammad Shamshir from Begusarai, Bihar. Shamshir's neighbour Naveen Kumar, 19, died in the fire and he is here to collect his body.
After opposition from the victims' kin, the Bihar government later announced that the bodies will be sent by road in ambulances.
A large number of people waited patiently outside the morgue for formalities to be completed and to be handed over the bodies. Some of them sat on pavements while others stood for hours.
A number of women sobbed. Many of them were accompanied by children and toddlers.
A Good Samaritan got refreshments for the waiting crowd in his car. As none among the crowd had eaten since morning, they helped themselves to the samosas and tea.
While most bodies left the hospital one at a time in ambulances, by evening there were 14 bodies still awaiting claimants. Relatives present there said that the victims' family members were on their way in trains mostly from Bihar.
In the congested bylanes of Anaj Mandi north Delhi, some people took selfies outside the building where the deadly fire incident took place on Sunday.
In the vicinity of the charred building, a number of men were present to prevent media persons from talking to the locals. Reporters were also stopped by some men guarding the area from entering the adjoining bylanes.
All the buildings in the lane where Sunday's accident took place had been locked. There were CCTV cameras outside most buildings.
Local resident Abdul (60) said though most of the buildings here were made for residential purposes, some building owners had rented out entire floors to manufacturing units.
"Most of these factories make plastic toys and other items. There are some garment factories as well. These owners charge the factory owners Rs 5,000- Rs 10,000 for one floor. Many of us still live here in the apartments," he said.
The Delhi government had ordered a magisterial probe into the tragedy, the worst fire accident in the national capital since the 1997 Uphaar cinema blaze that claimed 59 lives, and sought a report within seven days.
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