Four held for fire at G Noida high-rise on Diwali night

Greater Noida:The Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested four people in a fire incident at a high-rise housing society in Greater Noida West on Saturday

Greater Noida:The Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested four people in a fire incident at a high-rise housing society in Greater Noida West on Saturday.

Four held for fire at G Noida high-rise on Diwali night

The fire broke out on the 17th floor on Diwali night on Monday. While there was no loss of life in the incident, properties worth lakhs of rupees were damaged.

The police said that the four suspects are proprietors of Radicon Vedantam group, which is handling the maintenance of the housing society. They have been identified as Rajiv Kumar, a resident of Greater Noida West, Dinesh Sharma, resident of Ghaziabad, Ajeet Singh, a resident of Noida and Arpit Gautam, a resident of Ghaziabad.

Gautam Budh Nagar district chief fire officer Arun Kumar Singh said that an inquiry was set up in the matter and its report was submitted to the police after which an FIR was registered and action was taken in the case.

“The inquiry report states that the society’s fire safety system was not working at the time the fire broke out. It was also found that multiple notices to the builder from the fire department regarding the renewal of their fire ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) were ignored,” Singh said.

The fire was reported from the B-2 tower in Vedantam society in Greater Noida West. At the time of the fire, a woman and her 10-year-old son were present inside their home but they managed to escape on time. It took four fire tenders over one hour to douse the flames.

The four suspects have been booked under Section 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of ₹50 or upwards) and 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc.) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“The suspects were picked up from their residences on Saturday and on the basis of evidence, were arrested. The police investigations have found that the fire could have been controlled if the fire equipment had been working at the time of the incident,” said Rambadan Singh, deputy commissioner of police (Central Noida).

However, the suspects’ advocate alleged that the IPC Section 436, a non-bailable offence, has been wrongly added to the FIR. “The sections of negligence are bailable but the police have deliberately added Section 436, which deals with intent of destroying a house by placing an explosive or mischief by fire, as it is a non-bailable section. The police have acted wrongly in the matter under pressure from the public. Why would a builder set fire to his own project?” said Sanjay Sharma, an advocate representing Arpit Gautam and Dinesh Sharma.

The advocate added that his clients had also reigned from Radicon Vedantam group two years back and cannot be held responsible for the incident now.

When asked regarding the IPC Section 436, Umesh Bahadur Singh, station house officer (SHO) of Bisrakh police station where the FIR has been registered said, “Police have ample evidence that the builders caused mischief that led to the fire on Diwali night”.

The four suspects were produced before a magistrate and sent to judicial custody on Sunday, police added.