Mumbai: 2 businessmen held in connection with Dreams Mall fire
The police have also added the charge of forgery against the two accused persons after they found that forged documents were used to obtain the No Objection Certificate for Sunrise Hospital located in the mall.
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The fire at Dreams Mall, in Mumbai's Bhandup West (Express Photo: Deepak Joshi)Mumbai Police has arrested two businessmen in connection with the fire at Dreams Mall in Bhandup, which led to the death of 11 persons on March 26.
The police have also added the charge of forgery against the two accused persons after they found that forged documents were used to obtain the No Objection Certificate for Sunrise Hospital located in the mall.
The 11 persons who died were admitted in Sunrise Hospital. While seven of them were admitted in the ICU, the others were in the general ward. Several who were on oxygen support died due to smoke inhalation.
Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP S Chaitanya said that proprietor of Pona Corporation Haresh Joshi and Privilege Healthcare CEO George Putthu Serri were arrested on Thursday. They were produced before a local court, which remanded them in Bhandup police custody till May 10.
Chaitanya added, “After it was found that the documents the duo had submitted to obtain NOC were also forged, sections related to forgery were added in the FIR against the accused persons.” Soon after the incident, the police had registered an FIR against them on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
At that point, the Bhandup police had booked mall owners Rakesh Wadhawan, Nikita Trehan, Sarang Wadhawan, Deepak Shirke, and Sunrise Hospital’s directors among others.
An officer said that Pona Corporation is a government licensing agency that tested the fire system at the mall. It was on the basis of the go-ahead given by Pona Corporation that an NOC was given by the fire brigade. Pona Corporation gave the go-ahead in spite of there being no such systems in place, an officer said.
“It is on the basis of the details provided by the fire brigade to the Mumbai Police that the arrests were made. More arrests are likely in the coming days,” a senior officer said.
Three days ago, the family members of those who died in the fire had met the state DGP asking why no arrests had been made in the case. The DGP had assured them that action would be taken.
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