The Mumbai Police on Monday arrested the owner of the Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel in connection with the fire in resto-pubs in the complex that killed 14 people on December 29, 2017, the Hindustan Times reported. He will remain in police custody until January 29, according to ANI.
Ramesh Govani was booked under relevant sections of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, a day after the police took into custody Ravi Bhandari, a partner in Kamala Mills, fire station officer Rajendra Patil and the owner of Nirvana Hookah, Utkarsh Pandey.
“We had information that he was hiding near Pune,” unidentified police officials from the NM Joshi Marg Police Station told The Indian Express. “A team was on the lookout for him, and he was placed under arrest while returning from Pune.”
The police added that Govani was arrested after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said in a report that he had “negligently caused structural changes and damages” that trapped patrons at the bars when the fire broke out.
With this, nine people are in the police’s custody now. Owners of the 1Above restro-bar Jigar Sanghvi, Kripesh Sanghvi and Abhijit Mankar, as well as the owners of the adjoining Mojo’s Bistro, Yug Pathak and Yugi Tulli, were arrested earlier. The owners of both restro-bars were booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other sections under the Indian Penal Code.
A Mumbai fire brigade report had concluded that the blaze originated at Mojo’s Bistr and not at 1Above. But the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation recommended criminal action against the owners, architects and interior designers of both restaurants.
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