Day after Rajkot fire, officers forged register to save own skin, reveals probe

Sagathiya and three officers — Gautam Joshi, assistant town planning officer (ATPO) of RMC,  Mukesh Makwana, also RMC ATPO, Rohit Vigora, station officer of Kalavad Road fire station of RMC — were arrested on May 30. They are currently in judicial custody.

According to the Crime Branch, the owners were welding together a new structure for developing a snow park in the gaming zone when the welding sparks caused fire on May 25.(Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

On Saturday, two more officers – Rajesh Makwana, another ATPO, and Jaydip Chaudhary, assistant engineer of the RMC town planning department, were arrested by the Crime Branch.

“They were part of the group of officers who forged documents and records on May 26, seized the original register and destroyed it later by setting it on fire,” a police officer said.

In an application Friday to the court of of magistrate AP Dave of Rajkot, Bharat Basiya, DCP (Crime) of the Rajkot Crime Branch who is the investigating officer (IO) of the case, sought court permission to invoke additional IPC sections against Sagathiya, Joshi and other officers.

These IPC sections are 465 (forgery); 466 (forgery of record of Court or of public register, etc); 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record); 474 (having possession of document described in sections 466 or 467, knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine); 120B (criminal conspiracy); 201 (causing disappearance of evidence); and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed).

At the spot of TRP game zone fire accident. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Making submissions for invoking the additional IPC sections against the civic body officers, Tushar Gokani, Special Public Prosecutor, told the court that owners of the gaming zone paid a fee for inspection of the impact plan for regularisation of the TRP Game Zone on April 22 this year. But no entry of the TRP Game Zone impact plan was made in the Inward Register of the RMC town planning department.

Gokani told the court that on May 26, a day after the fire at the TRP Game Zone, the accused officers made a backdated entry for the impact plan of the TRP gaming zone in the Inward Register of May 4, 2024.

Rescue operations were underway at the spot for over six hours after the blaze erupted at a structure built using metal and fibre sheets for gaming activities. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

The accused officers, Gokani said, also drafted a query letter dated May 9, 2024 with respect to the entry dated May 4, 2024, marked it as outward letter No. 142, destroyed the old Outward Register and replaced it with a new one.

The accused, he said, also tampered with the Inward Register for Impact Fee Act applications maintained at the West Zone office of the RMC. He said the accused officers kept the forged records in their possession.

Gokani told the court that this information came to light in the statements of Joshi and Mukesh Chavda, a clerk of the town planning department, recorded by the Rajkot Crime Branch during the course of the investigation.

He said the accused officers indulged in “forgery and destruction of evidence” to show that they had taken action with respect to the TRP Gaming Zone where a tin shed had been erected allegedly without prior approval.

A day after the fire incident, the civic body had suspended Joshi and Chaudhary for alleged dereliction of duty. The RMC had subsequently suspended Sagathiya and Makwana, also for alleged dereliction of duty.

After hearing the submissions of the Special Public Prosecutor, the court allowed the application to invoke additional IPC sections.