Mumbai: The NM Joshi police has registered another case against the three co-owners of 1 Above — Kripesh and Jigar Sanghvi, Abhijeet Mankar — for allegedly not depositing their Provident Fund (PF) contribution for the employees of the pub to the tune Rs 10 lakh. The trio is currently in judicial custody after they were arrested by the police on charges related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the Kamala mills fire case.
Police sources said that the employees of 1Above pub approached the police on Friday to complain about the pending deposits of provident fund, which were to be contributed by the company. The employees said that the defaults on payment of provident fund were worth around Rs 10 lakh, which were not deposited in their EPFO accounts.
Ahmed Pathan, a senior police inspector at NM Joshi police station, confirmed the development. He said, “We have registered a case against the accused, and they are already under arrest in connection with another case (Kamala Mills fire). A case has been registered against the accused under the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provi-sions Act.”
The NM Joshi police arrested the owners of 1Above pub — Sanghvi brothers and Mankar — last week, after they were on the run for more than 12 days. They were booked under sections pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder after a fire gutted in two pubs at Kamala Mills Compound that killed 14 people, including 11 females on December 29 last year. The Sanghvi brothers were arrested from Bandra area, while Mankar was arrested from hotel Marine Plaza at South Mumbai.
