Court rejects bail plea of fire officer

Mumbai: A session’s court on Friday rejected the bail application filed by an assistant divisional fire officer arrested in connection with Kamla Mills fire on December 29, 2017 in Parel that resulted in deaths of 14 people.

Fire officer Sandip Shinde had contended before the court that he had only signed on NOC because the concerned officer was absent on that day and he cannot be charged with section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC because he neither had any intention to cause death of any person nor he had any knowledge that any construction at the place of incident could result in any persons death.

According to special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty, Shinde was supposed to conduct an inspection before signing any document and his claim that section 304 of IPC is not applicable on the case cannot be accepted at this stage because this claim could be tested only at the time of trial.

After hearing arguments judge S.V. Yarlagadda accepted prosecution’s arguments that the accused should have conducted the inspection. The judge also observed that the accused is not the only person facing the charge so court needs to see roles of all the accused to decide if charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder is made out or not in the case.