Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday once again rejected the bail applications filed by some of the accused in the Kamla Mills fire case. The applicants include owners of two pubs that gutted in the fire.
Justice P.D. Naik rejected the bail applications filed by Jigar Sanghvi, Kripesh Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar partners of the rooftop pub ‘1 Above’ and Yug Pathak owner of Mojo’s Bistro.
The applicants had contended before the court that the investigation in the case is over and chargesheet has been filed.
Some of the accused in the case have already been granted bail and there is no need to keep them in custody now, so they should be granted bail, they said.
On the other hand the government pleader and advocate Lakshmi Ram-an, who appeared on beh-alf of Rakesh Lakdawala, one of the victim family, opposed the bail application saying that the case is of serious nature and the role played by the accused who have been granted bail and present applicant are different.
They claimed that the present applicants are owners of the pubs and were responsible for the alteration made in the pubs and business being run there that resulted in the incident. It was also argued that two of the accused were on the run for quite some time before police arrested them.
After hearing arguments Justice Naik rejected their bail applications.
On December 29, last year a massive fire swept through two rooftop pubs, ‘Mojo’s Bistro’ and ‘1 Above’, located in Kamla Mills compound, resulting in the death of 14 persons.
