Mudka fire: Builder owner, businessmen to be grilled together

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday said that they will seek the custody of the two businessmen who were running an industrial unit in a Mundka building where a devastating fire killed 27 people on Friday in order to question them along with the owner of the building

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday said that they will seek the custody of the two businessmen who were running an industrial unit in a Mundka building where a devastating fire killed 27 people on Friday in order to question them along with the owner of the building.

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A senior police officer associated with the probe said that the owner, Manish Lakra, is under two-day police custody while the businessmen -- Harish Goyal and Varun Goyal -- are in jail. He added that a joint interrogation will help the police to get clarity on the business agreement and the illegalities involved in the running of the industrial unit.

The Goyal brothers were arrested on Friday, and Lakra was arrested on Sunday.

He said that Lakra, during interrogation, told the police that he rented out the three floors of the four-storey building to the Goyal brothers for a monthly fee of Rs1.20 lakh. Lakra used to live on the terrace of the building and managed to escape to the adjacent building after the blaze broke out.

According to the probe so far, the building’s plan was not sanctioned by the North MCD and the industrial unit was running without mandatory licence from the civic body and a safety clearance from the fire department.

The officer said that they will recover documents related to the ownership of the building, as well as ask Lakra about the documents that the submitted to get a water and electricity connections. “Lakra is also being questioned to ascertain why he did not get the mandatory police verification of his tenants,” the officer said asking not to be named.

“We will also grill him to identify the government officials from various agencies who helped him build the illegal structure, and then used it for commercial activities. Information from the agencies will also be sought to fix responsibility for the tragedy,” the officer added.

DNA sample collected

On Monday, the DNA sample of the daughter of motivational speaker Kaliash Jyani, who died along with his son Amit in the fire, was collected to identify their bodies, deputy commissioner of police (outer) Sameer Sharma said.

So far, DNA samples for 26 people killed in the fire have been collected, leaving just one person reportedly a native of Bihar who was among those reported missing. Police said his family was on their way from Bihar.

“DNA samples of 26 missing people have been taken from their blood relatives. For one missing woman,any blood relative has not been found till now,” said DCP Sharma.

All 27 bodies were charred beyond recognition. However, eight people were identified by their relatives from pieces of jewellery that they were wearing. But, the police have sought DNA test on all bodies to ensure they are claimed by their relatives only.

Dr SK Arora, medical superintendent of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, where the bodies have been kept, said, “We have collected the DNA samples from all the dead bodies, and have started the process of matching them with their relatives. The process will take at least seven days,” he said.