Chandigarh PG fire tragedy: Accused building owner withdraws plea

The fire had gutted the illegal PG accommodation, owned by Aneja, who had further rented it out to Nitish Bansal and Nitish Popli, other two accused running the PG since August 2018, allegedly without registration with the UT estate office.

The accused building owner in the Sector-32 PG fire incident reported in February withdrew his plea from the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday.

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In February this year, three girl students had died and two others had sustained injuries in a fire that had broken out at a paying guest accommodation in Sector 32. The house owner, Gaurav Aneja, and two others were booked under Sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code in view of the widespread public outrage over the incident.

The fire had gutted the illegal PG accommodation, owned by Aneja, who had further rented it out to Nitish Bansal and Nitish Popli, other two accused running the PG since August 2018, allegedly without registration with the UT estate office.

Aneja had approached the high court for bail on July 3 arguing that he being the owner of the premises in question was not liable for prosecution as he had only rented out the place.