Two employees of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation have been arrested for allegedly tampering with documents linked to a gaming arcade where a fire killed 33 persons in May, PTI quoted the police as saying on Sunday.
The fire broke out on May 25 evening at a temporary structure at the TRP Game Zone in Gujarat’s Rajkot. Nine children were killed in the fire.
The Rajkot Police’s crime branch arrested the civic body’s assistant town planning officer Rajesh Makwana and assistant engineer Jaideep Chaudhary for their alleged involvement in tampering with a register after the game zone fire incident, PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Parthrajsinh Gohil as saying.
“They made certain changes in government documents related to the TRP game zone after the fire incident,” Gohil was quoted as saying. “They also forged documents.”
At least 12 persons, including six government employees, have been arrested in connection with the case so far, the police officer added.
The four other government employees arrested earlier were the city’s Town Planning Officer MD Sagathia, Assistant Town Planning Officers Mukesh Makwana and Gautam Joshi, and Rohit Vigora, the former station officer of the Kalavad Road fire station, according to PTI.
Ashoksinha Jadeja, one of the six co-owner of the game zone, surrendered before the police on Thursday in connection with the case, the news agency reported. The four others had already been arrested and another one had died in the fire. The game zone’s manager has also been arrested.
On May 27, the Gujarat government transferred three senior police officers and a top civic official in Rajkot after the incident. The state government replaced Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava with Indian Police Service officer Brijesh Kumar Jha.
Additional Commissioner of Police (administration, traffic and crime) Vidhi Choudhary and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 2) Sudhirkumar J Desai had also been transferred, according to reports.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state had also transferred Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Anand Patel, and appointed DP Desai, the chief executive officer of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, in the place.
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