The Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested one of the owners of Mojo’s Bistro in connection with the deadly fire that broke out at a building in the Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel on December 28. The fire claimed 14 lives.
Yug Pathak and the other owners of the resto-pub were named as accused in the First Information Report after the Mumbai fire department found that the blaze had most likely started at their pub and not at 1Above lounge as reported earlier.
In its preliminary investigation report submitted on Friday, the fire department said the blaze most likely started at Mojo’s Bistro, where patrons were served hookah.
“It was revealed from most of the eyewitnesses that hookah was served at the restaurant at the time of the fire,” said the report submitted to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief Ajoy Mehta, PTI reported.
Burning embers from the lit charcoal or from the stove or embers from when the charcoal was fanned possibly came in contact with the combustible curtains or decorative material nearby, the report said, adding that the blaze rapidly spread to the thatched roof of 1Above. Both restaurants had illegal sheds made of bamboo, burning charcoal, synthetic curtains and cushions, the Hindustan Times quoted from the report.
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