NEW DELHI: The owner of the coaching centre and the chief operating officer of another institute have been arrested in connection with the fire in northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area on Thursday in which 61 students were injured. Police said the injured students belonged to two different coaching centres running on the second, third and fourth floors of the five-storey building.Both Shyam Sundar Bharti, 54, owner of a coaching centre, and Shivesh Mishra, who is the chief operating officer of another coaching institute, have been granted bail.Jitendra Meena, DCP (North-West), said police had recorded the statements of 12 injured students and four staff members. “We found there was gross negligence about the fire safety arrangements at both the coaching institutes,” said Meena. Most of the injured students belonged to the Sanskriti and the Bharti Concept institutes.An officer with knowledge of the investigation that the fire extinguishers available at the coaching institutes did not function when needed. The initial inquiry has revealed that four coaching centres and some private classes were going on inside the building at the time of the fire. “All the owners and the officials of the coaching institutes were asked to appear before the investigating officer,” a police officer said.A police source said that the recently acquired 3D laser scanning devices may be employed for the digital documentation of the crime scenes in 3D view. “It will aid the cops in recreating crime scenes and in collecting important evidence,” the source said.A case under the Indian Penal Code’s sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) has been registered.Meanwhile, nine students who were admitted to three different hospitals were discharged on Friday. four other students were still confined to their beds in the hospitals. “These students, among them a girl, fell when coming down from the windows and received various injuries, including fractures,” an officer said.The fire department will check whether the building was meant to run a coaching centre. “Most of the coaching institutes are not regularised and we have so far found that the building was a commercial complex where shops may have been built. The building had no fire-safety certificate,” another officer revealed.A fire officer said, “We have so far found that coaching institutes were running several electrical appliances, such as a number of air conditioners, that increased the load on the electricity cables and resulted in the short-circuit.”On inspecting the building, the cops found that there was no water in the tank on the roof of the building, the fire hydrants were not in working condition and no smoke alarms were installed.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/2-arrested-over-mukherjee-nagar-blaze/articleshow/101055051.cms