TRP Game Zone blaze: Rajkot fire chief, deputy arrested for ‘negligence’

The special investigation team probing the case produced the three before a magistrate on Sunday and sought remand of the two officers. The magistrate granted the SIT custody for two days. “The lawyer of the accused urged the court to stay its remand order for 10 days, for allowing them time to challenge the order before a higher court. However, we opposed that plea. The court ruled in our favour and rejected their application seeking stay and granted our application for remand,” Tushar Gokani, special public prosecutor of the case said.

Rajkot Crime Branch assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Bharat Basiya, who heads the SIT team, said, “We separately summoned Kher and Rathod to the crime branch office for questioning, and later placed them under arrest.”

“Theba, who was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau was in judicial custody, and we arrested him after securing a transfer warrant,” he said.

The ACP said that Mahesh Rathod was the uncle of Rahul Rathod, one of the six owners of the TRP Game Zone.

“Rathod had been given the contract for fabricating a new shed for setting up a snow park in the TRP Game Zone. He had been supervising the welding work on May 25 when the sparks caused the fire,” he said.  Mahesh was among the nine persons injured in the incident. He is being treated for burn injuries on his hand.

Crime Branch officials said both Kher and Theba were aware that a fire had broken out at the TRP Game Zone on September 4, 2023, which was also caused by sparks generated during welding work.

“They were also aware that the gaming zone was operational, but until the blaze broke out on May 25, they took no action to check whether the game zone had a no-objection certificate and adequate fire-fighting equipment. Both Kher and Theba had been questioned by the SIT earlier in the investigation.

8 Rajkot Municipal Corporation officers arrested so far

With the arrest of the top two fire officers of Rajkot, the number of Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) officers arrested in the case has gone up to eight. This includes Kalavad Road fire station officer Rohit Vigora, who was arrested on May 30, Rajkot town planner MD Sagathiya, three assistant town planners and one deputy engineer of the town planning department.

TRP Game Zone owners Yuvrajsinh Solanki, Rahul Rathod, Kiritsinh Jadeja, Ashoksinh Jadeja, Thaval Thakkar and the gaming zone manager Nitin Lodha alias Nithin Jain have also been arrested.

The sixth owner, Prakashchand Hiran alias Prkash Jain, was among the 27 killed in the fire, which ripped through the shed housing the indoor games facilities.

Theba was arrested by Gujarat ACB on June 6 after he was booked for allegedly possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs Rs 79.94 lakh. The ACB had registered the case following searches at Theba’s office and residence in the aftermath of the fire at TRP Game Zone and in the wake of allegations of graft, levelled by Rajya Sabha MP Ram Mokariya that Theba, who had claimed that the accused had taken Rs 70,000 bribe for one of his real estate projects.