Fort building fire: Mhada told to file case against tenants

MUMBAI: The

BMC

has asked

Mhada

to file a second police

case

against two

tenants

of the British era

Kothari Mansion

that caught

fire

the previous Saturday, for not repairing the structure despite obtaining a no-objection certficate (NOC) for the purpose.


Nearly half of the six-storey structure, opposite the heritage CSMT premises, collapsed during the blaze.

The building, once home to

Light of Asia

restaurant, was vacated two years ago after it was deemed as “very dangerous”.

A few days ago, based on a BMC complaint, MRA Marg police had registered a negligence case against tenants Nagraj Jain and Sayali Sawant for allegedly not taking due care of the structure and engendering lives of people in adjoining buildings as well as passersby in the locality.

Residents of the adjoining Patel Manson have been suffering the most since the incident; they have been advised to not occupy their homes till a structural audit of their own building is complete. But the auditor appointed for the purpose has told them that an audit is not possible till the debris of the collapsed structure next door is cleared. Six days after the incident though, the debris is yet to be removed.

Besides, the BMC has barricaded a portion of the busy road outside the building to avoid any serious incident,

Civic officials have written to Mhada to remove the debris and secure the remaining portion of the fire-affected building. MRA Marg senior inspector Sukhlal Varpe said, “We have registered an FIR and are probing the case and recording the statements of concerned persons.”

Meanwhile, a tenant said there were eyewitnesses who saw some suspicious movement in the building before the fire. He demanded that cops record their statements and added that there was a dispute among the tenants.

Assistant municipal commissioner Kiran Dighavkar said, “We asked Mhada to secure the structure and file a separate FIR against the two tenants for not repairing it. We need to fix accountability on those who take an NOC and leave a structure as it is, thereby putting lives at risk. There are many such buildings in the city.”