- Gujarat Congress demands FIR against senior officials, BJP office-bearers
- State Govt sets up a special investigation team, headed by the Additional Director General of CID-Crime, to probe the incident
NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, MAY 27
Gujarat High Court on Monday conducted the hearing regarding the Rajkot Fire tragedy. Slamming Rajkot civic body, the bench of Justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai questioned whether the municipal corporation sat over the fire safety orders passed earlier on a PIL for 18 months.
The court also said the structures set up by the game zone operator cannot be branded as ‘temporary structures’, adding, “We do not have faith in the state machinery now.”
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government informed the court that a special investigation team, headed by the Additional Director General of CID-Crime, was set up to probe the incident. The government said, the interim report from the SIT is expected to be ready within the next three days.
In a related development, Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghvi visited the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar and reviewed the operations of FSL in preparing the DNA report of the deceased of the fire tragedy in Rajkot. Sanghavi said the state government is sensitive about the tragic incident.
Earlier in the day, the Gujarat government suspended seven officials, including two police officers, in connection with the Rajkot-fire tragedy.
Amid outcry over a massive fire at a gaming zone in Rajkot in which 27 people died, the Gujarat government on Monday transferred the civic chief, police commissioner and two other IPS officers.
The government has replaced Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava with 1999 batch IPS officer Brijesh Kumar Jha.
Jha served as a special commissioner of police, sector 2, Ahmedabad city.
The government also transferred Vidhi Choudhary, Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration, Traffic and Crime) to Rajkot City, and Sudhirkumar J Desai, DCP-Zone 2, Rajkot.
Chaoudhry has been replaced by 2010-batch Mahendra Bagria.
However, Bhargava, Chaudhary and Desai have been kept waiting for a posting.
Whereas, Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Anand Babulal Patel has also been replaced with DP Desai.
Several children were among those who died in a fire at TRP gaming zone in Rajkot on Saturday.
So far, three people have been arrested in the case.
On Sunday, the police arrested one of the partners, Yuvrajsinh Solanki, and the entertainment facility’s manager, Nitin Jain. Rahul Rathod was arrested on Monday.
Police have registered an FIR against six partners of the TRP game zone on charges of culpable homicide not amounting.
As per the FIR, the accused persons erected a 50-metre wide and 60-metre long structure with the height of a two- to three-storey building using metal sheet fabrication to create a game zone.
The Gujarat Congress demanded that senior civic and State officials and office-bearers of the ruling BJP be named in the FIR registered in connection with the gaming zone mishap.
Addressing a press conference, state Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil also asked the government to consider giving “generous” compensation to the kin of those killed saying the majority of the families belong to humble backgrounds.
