Mundka fire: Probe points to congestion in building

Days after 27 people died inside a four-storey commercial building in Mundka, preliminary investigation has revealed that the switchboard on the first floor had sparking, following which cardboards and other material lying nearby caught fire.

DCP (Outer) Sameer Sharma said, “We conducted an initial investigation and found that on the first floor, there was a change-over switch/board for electricity connection. At the same place, they kept cardboard and dumped other materials which supposedly caused the fire to spread quickly.” He said the building was congested due to storage and assembling units for CCTVs and routers. “We have found that there were workstations and offices. Steel sheets were used to separate staircase from floors. There were partitions which were also used as storage. But all facts will be clearer after forensic reports,” he said. The Forensic Science Laboratory has already collected DNA samples from 27 bodies and is now matching those with blood samples collected from family members.

Sharma said, “We have taken around 15 documents related to property, rent agreement, and company documents from the tenants, Harish Goel and Vijay Goel, and owner Manish Lakra. All are photocopies and we have sent these to more than 10 agencies to verify…” Meanwhile, a Delhi court Wednesday sent the three men to five-day judicial custody.