The tragic incident occurred in the Nana Mava locality of Rajkot around 4:30 p.m. on May 25 at the TRP Gaming Zone, as the massive fire claimed the lives of at least 28 people, including children.
The Fire Control Room received a call about the gaming zone incident at around 4:30 pm.”Fire tenders and ambulances rushed to the spot to douse the flames. The fire caused the collapse of the structure, and debris is being cleared,” Rajkot Collector Prabhavit Joshi said. According to fire officials, the reason behind the massive blaze has not been ascertained yet.
Swapnil Khare, Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Rajkot said, “We are checking the details of the gaming zone. But prima facie, there are no records that the operators had applied for a fire NOC, nor had they applied for any other clearance from the Rajkot Municipal Corporation,”
According to IANS, the incident happened due to management’s negligence. The gaming zone had no proper licenses and no record of NOC was found.
On Monday, the Gujarat government suspended five officials, including two police inspectors and civic staff, due to their negligence. The suspended officials were blamed for allowing the facility to operate without necessary approvals. The game zone had submitted proof of fire safety equipment, but the NOC was still being processed.
The Gujarat Government set up a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by additional DG (CID, Crime) Subhash Trivedi to investigate the incident. “We will go through all the aspects of the incident and investigate them thoroughly…We will work with commitment and complete honesty and integrity to provide justice to the children who have lost their lives,” ADGP Trivedi said.
An FIR is registered against six people under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt to a person by doing an act that endangers their life or personal safety) and 114 (someone present when offense is committed). Police have arrested the manager of the entertainment facility, Nitin Jain and his partner Yuvraj Singh Solanki on Saturday. “The crime branch team is working to arrest others. Our effort is to complete the investigation as soon as possible and file a charge sheet in the case,” Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava said.
As a response to the tragedy, Gujarat DGP directed the inspection of all game zones across the state. All zones operating without proper licenses and valid fire NOC and fire safety equipment are ordered to be closed down.
Compensation for the families
Chief minister Bhupendra Patel has announced an ex gratia compensation of ₹4 lakh for the families of each of the deceased and ₹ 50,000 to each injured. PM Modi, and Draupaudi Murmu expressed their grief over the tragic loss of the families that suffered.
