Three more sent to police custody

MUMBAI: Aholidaycourt,onSunday,grantedpolicecustody(PC) till January 25 for Ravi Bhandari, 57, director of the Kamala Mills compound; Rajendra B Patil, 52, the fire official who granted a no-objection certification(NOC)toMojo’sBistrofrom thefiredepartmentandUtkarsh Vinod Pande, 28, a hookah supplier.

The Mumbai police sought custody to probe alleged lapses and negligence which led to the fire. “We initially arrested the managers of the 1Above and later the owners of 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro. The fire brigade report stated that the fire started from Mojo and after investigation, these three were arrested,” SNaikwadi,inspector,NMJoshi police station, told court while seeking custody of the three.

Police wanted to investigate the involvement of other people in the matter, the inspector told the court. Naikwadi stated that while Bhandari is the owner, PandesuppliedhookahtoMojo’s Bistrowithoutproperclearance while Patil issued the NOC a week before the fire.

“Patil gave a wrong report saying that the terrace is open,” Naikwadi told the court.

‘THEYIGNOREDNORMS’

The police has alleged that the threewerearrestedbecausethey ignored various norms.

Yug Tuli, co-owner of Mojo’s BistrowhowasarrestedonTuesday, allegedly outsourced the hookah business to Pande. “Pande employed his staff to servehookahtocustomers,”said a police officer, adding that Pande knew that Mojo’s Bistro did not have permission. “Despitethis,Pandewentahead with the deal.”

On the role of Bhandari, the officer said that he had misused additionalfloorspaceindex(FSI) by leasing out the terrace. “The terraces were given on rent when there was no permission, such as commencement certificate, from the civic body,” said the officer.