High court rejects Tuli’s bail plea

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday rejected the bail application filed by Yug Tuli, the co-owner of Mojo’s Bistro restaurant and an accused in the December 2017 fire at Parel’s Kamala Mills compound where 14 persons had died.

After the incident, Tuli was absconding but he surrendered a week later. His bail plea was rejected by the sessions court. In his plea, Tuli had put all the blame on the 1 Above restaurant’s staff for the tragedy. Mojo’s Bistro and 1 Above had been gutted in the fire.

Shirish Gupte, senior counsel who appeared for Tuli, argued that as per the police inquiry, the fire did start at Mojo’s Bistro, but none of the guests at the restaurant were among the dead. He also said that a chargesheet has been filed and there was no need to keep the accused behind bars.

The prosecution opposed the bail plea and said there was gross negligence on Tuli’s part and also on the other accused persons’ part. As per the inquiry reports of the police as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the flying embers emanating from a hookah being served ‘illegally’ at Mojo’s Bistro caused the fire.

Tuli claimed that he had no role in the day-to-day operations of the hookah parlour and argued that the hookah contract was given to Nirvana Hookah Company whose owner Utkarsh Pande was arrested and thus Tuli had no role in the supply of hookah. A total of 14 persons have been arrested in the case and booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including those related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence.