Did not receive any complaints from attendees: Mungantiwar

The development came after the Opposition raised the issue of 14 deaths due to heatstroke during the event organised by the state government to confer the Maharashtra Bhushan Award to Appasaheb Dharmadhikari

Mumbai: The cultural affairs minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Thursday informed the Legislative Assembly that the people, who attended the Maharashtra Bhushan award ceremony in Kharghar on April 16, did not complain about the arrangements in the event.

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The development came after the Opposition raised the issue of 14 deaths due to heatstroke during the event organised by the state government to confer the Maharashtra Bhushan Award to Appasaheb Dharmadhikari.

While Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Ajay Chaudhary asked the government if a criminal case has been registered against the event management company and if the organisers will be booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil asked why the committee appointed to probe the incident has not been able to submit its report in due time.

Replying to the questions, Mungantiwar said, “The attendees had requested to organise the ceremony in the morning for their convenience. A packed pandal was not advisable as it would have led to suffocation because over 20 lakh people attended the function organised on 306 acres. There is not a single complaint by any of the attendees related to the arrangements made or related to the deaths,” he said.

The minister said that it does not fit in the definition of culpable homicide as there was no ill intention that led to the deaths.