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Illegal paying guest ran right under Chandigarh administration’s nose
Owner was booked for violations in February 2019 too, but let off with a fine; estate office, police failed to conduct checks thereafter
Nitish Bansal, the man running the paying guest facility in Sector 32 where a blaze killed three girls on Saturday, was booked for operating the facility illegally just last year.
On February 5, 2019, police had booked Bansal under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code after a drive against illegal PG accommodations had revealed violation of various rules at Bansal’s unregistered PG facility running in a 10-marla building.
Bansal, however, was let off by a local court on November 30 with just a fine as penalty. Besides Bansal, Sector-21 resident Vicky Asija was also booked in a similar case.
Thereafter, neither the estate office nor the police conducted any follow-up checks at Bansal’s facility, allowing him to continue the PG operations in violation of rules.
On Saturday, three girls died and two suffered injuries after a fire broke out at this accommodation. The deceased were Muskan Mehta, Riya Arora and Pakshi Grover, all aged between 19 and 21 years.
While Pakshi and Riya died due to suffocation and also suffered burns, Muskan succumbed to 70% burn injuries. They were declared brought dead at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32.
Bansal, his partner Nitish Popli and building owner Gaurav Aneja were booked under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336 (act endangering life of others), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Assistant estate officer (ASE) Manish Lohan said, “We need to check what information was given to the estate department by police while booking Bansal last year. I can only comment after checking these details.”
BUILDING OWNER, PG OPERATOR ON THE RUN
While Bansal was arrested on Saturday and sent to two-day police remand by a court on Sunday, Popli and Aneja continue to be on the run.
Even as guidelines mandate the building owner to live on the PG premises, Aneja lives in Sector 30, while Popli and Bansal are residents of Sectors 34 and 50, respectively.
Police said Aneja had rented out the house for ₹90,000 to Bansal and Popli. Each of the 34 girls living in the two-storey house were paying ₹10,000 a month for lodging and food.
On Sunday, a team from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Sector 36, visited the spot and sealed the premises. While collecting samples, the team recovered remnants a mobile phone and a laptop.
The girls’ guardians said they had checked out the PG rooms, but never thought a mishap of this magnitude could happen.
“We gave our consent for the room as it was close to the college, and was in the vicinity of several parks,” said Nishan Singh Cheema, maternal uncle of Jasmine, 19, a native of Moga, who along with Femina, 23, from Fatehabad, Haryana, jumped off the balcony to escape the blaze.
Pakshi’s father Navdeep Grover sought stringent punishment for the PG operators. “We want the administration to bring the culprits to justice,” the distraught father said.
The girls’ bodies were handed over to their families after autopsies at GMCH, Sector 32.
Mukesh Saini, who lives next to Aneja’s house in Sector 32, said there was another fire in an air conditioner at Aneja’s house recently, but it was contained immediately. “When the fire broke out on Saturday, we heard nothing and didn’t realise anything till some girls came to ring our door bell,” said Saini.
