AMN / Ahmedabad
Gujarat High Court on Monday said it had no faith in the state machinery, which gets into action only when innocent lives are lost.
A special bench of Justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai asked the Rajkot Municipal Corporation whether it had turned a blind eye to such a big structure coming up in its vicinity, after the RMC’s lawyer submitted that the TRP gaming zone had not asked for requisite permissions.
The court said the state machinery gets into action only after innocent lives are lost.
The HC was hearing a suo motu PIL on the deadly fire. Earlier, it had called it a “man-made disaster”.
The court also observed on Monday that all the Rajkot municipal commissioners, from the time the TRP gaming zone was set up in 2021 till the time of this incident (on May 25) “should be held accountable for the tragedy that occurred”, and directed them to furnish separate affidavits.
On Monday, a counsel pointed out that the incident required immediate preventive and corrective measures, and the state will have to come forward to hold a person accountable, and this calls for drastic steps.
The court then said, “Who will take such drastic steps? Honestly speaking, we do not have faith in the state machinery now. Four years after orders of this court, directing them, after their assurance, this is the sixth incident that has happened. They only want lives to be lost and then trigger the machinery,” the court observed.
Meanwhile Gujarat government on Monday shunted out five officials, including Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava and two other IPS officers, after a massive fire at a game zone facility killed 28 people, including four children.
Bhargava has been replaced by IPS officer Brijesh Kumar Jha. Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration, Traffic and Crime) Vidhi Choudhary and DCP-Zone 2 Sudhirkumar J Desai have also been transferred, officials said.
According to police, the gaming zone did not have the required fire safety clearance from the city’s municipal corporation at the time of the incident. While the gaming zone owners had submitted bills to the police for fire safety equipment and claimed to have installed such equipment on the premises, the process for obtaining the necessary Fire NOC (No Objection Certificate) was underway, but had not been completed.
It is suspected that the fire might have started due to a short circuit, but officials said that the exact cause will be known only after a probe.
The action comes a day after Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the site and instructed the officials to take strict action against those responsible for the horrific incident.
The police have arrested the gaming zone’s owner – Yuvraj Singh Solanki, and his manager – Nitin Jain, under various charges, including culpable homicide.
“An FIR has also been registered against four other accused under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), and 114 (abettor present when offense is committed) of the Indian Penal Code,” a police official said.
The six individuals against whom the case was registered by the Rajkot taluka police in the wee hours of Sunday are Dhaval Corporation proprietor Dhaval Thakkar, Raceway Enterprise partners Ashoksinh Jadeja, Kiritsinh Jadeja, Prakashchand Hiran, Yuvrajsinh Solanki and Rahul Rathod.
The state has announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of each deceased. The Central Government has also announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased person.
Gujarat Congress has demanded that senior civic and state officials and office-bearers of the ruling BJP be named in the FIR registered in the Rajkot gaming zone fire, stressing that action against junior-level employees is meaningless.