Rajkot game zone fire: 2 civic body members arrested for making changes to documents

12 people, including six government officials, five of the six co-owners, and the manager, are now in police custody in connection with the May 25 incident.

Published on: Jun 16, 2024, 11:59:35 IST

By HT News Desk, New Delhi

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Two more employees of Gujarat's Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) have been arrested for allegedly making changes in documents pertaining to the game zone where a fire last month claimed as many as 27 lives, police said on Sunday.

Debris being removed from the game zone site where a fire broke out on Saturday, in Rajkot on May 27. (PTI)

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Those arrested on Saturday in connection with the May 25 incident at Rajkot city's TRP game zone are Rajesh Makwana and Jaideep Chaudhary, RMC's assistant town planning officer (TPO) and assistant engineer, respectively, according to Parthrajsinh Gohil, Deputy Commissioner of Police.

“They made certain changes in government documents related to the TRO game zone after the incident,” DCP Gohil stated at a press conference, adding that the police have now arrested 12 people, including six government employees and six other persons.

The four government employees arrested earlier include Rajkot's Town Planning Officer MD Sagathia, assistant TPOs Mukesh Makwana and Gautam Joshi, and Rohit Vigora, an ex-station officer of the city's Kalavad Road fire station.

Also Read | Rajkot fire: 18 Gujarat gaming zone owners booked for lapses

Ashoksinh Jadeja, one of the six co-owners of the TRP game zone, surrendered on Thursday. Four co-owners were already in custody, while one lost his life in the incident. A manager is also in custody.

Also, the probe has already confirmed that Prakash Hiran, the sixth co-owner who was named in the FIR and was ‘missing’ since the tragedy, died in the deadly blaze as he was inside the facility when it was gutted, as per police.

A CCTV footage showed that the fire broke out due to sparks that fell on thermocol sheets during wielding work on the ground floor. Though the workers tried to douze the blaze with extinguishers, it spread quickly, eventually engulfing the entire facility.

Also Read | Rajkot fire: Have got green signal to quiz top officials, says SIT chief; all DNA samples matched

The game zone, police inquiry found, was being operated without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the municipal corporation's fire department.

(With PTI inputs)

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