Mumbai pub blaze: Kin of pub owners held, released later
Mumbai: The Byculla police on Sunday arrested two relatives and booked a cousin of Ritesh and Jigar Sanghvi, two of the three absconding owners of 1Above pub who were booked after a fire at their establishment claimed 14 lives on Friday. The trio was granted bail within hours. The development came in the wake of the police registering a case against the three for allegedly shielding the accused.
The Byculla police on Sunday arrested two relatives and booked a cousin of Ritesh and Jigar Sanghvi, two of the three absconding owners of Kamala Mills’ 1 Above pub, who were booked after a fire at their establishment claimed 14 lives on Friday morning. The trio was granted bail within hours.
The development came in the wake of the Byculla police station registering a case against the trio for allegedly shielding the accused.
According to Avinash Shingate, senior police inspector of Byculla police station, Rakesh Sanghvi and Mahendra Sanghvi were arrested on S u n d a y from their
M a z g a o n residence, while the accused’s cousin Aditya Sanghvi was booked.
The case was registered under section 216 of the Indian Penal Code ( IPC), which pertains to harbouring an offender who has escaped from custody or whose apprehension has been ordered.
Stating that he had no connection with the restaurant, Aditya Sanghvi told The Asian Age, “I am a relative of the owners of 1 Above… I don’t know why we w e r e arrested. I have no idea where the owners are.”
On Friday, the NM Joshi police detained two other close relatives of the 1 Above owners for questioning over the fire.
The next day, the police issued a lookout notice against the three co- owners of the pub — Ritesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar.
The NM Joshi Marg police station has registered a case against the Sanghvis and Mankar under sections related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, among others. Acting on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s ( BMC’s) complaint, the NM Joshi Marg police station also registered three fresh FIRs against the trio.