The Bombay High Court on Thursday said the fire safety audits done by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai were not very effective, PTI reported. The court will choose a judicial panel to investigate the December 28, 2017 fire that killed 14 people later this month.
The court was hearing a petition filed by former police commissioner of the city, Julio Ribeiro, who had sought a judicial inquiry into the Kamala Mills fire.
The Maharashtra government told the court it had decided to set up a three-member judicial panel to investigate the fire. The state also proposed names for the panel, including several retired Bombay High Court judges, two architects and two retired secretaries of the urban development department. The court will pick names from the list on March 19.
The bench said the panel should not only find out the reason for the fire, but also suggest steps to prevent such incidents in the future.
When the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai said it had set up its own panel to investigate the fire and it was conducting fire safety audits, the court said: “We have seen the results of your audit. There are shortcomings and that is why incidents like these are happening.”
The December fire had started at Mojo’s Bistro restaurant and spread to the adjacent 1Above, where 14 people died of suffocation. The police have arrested 14 persons so far, including two – a civic body engineer and a fire officer – on Wednesday. They have also filed a 2,706-page chargesheet against 12 accused, including the owners of the two restaurants and Kamala Mills.
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