Mumbai pub blaze: Son of ex-top cop nabbed

mumbai — Moving swiftly after the Mumbai Fire Brigade probe report, the police on Saturday arrested Yug K. Pathak, the son of a retired DGP-level IPS officer and the co-owner of The Mojo’s Bistro fire in which 14 people were killed on December 29.

“He has been booked under the stringent IPC Section 304 pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Patil.

The son of an IPS officer K.K. Pathak — who had served as police commissioner of Pune and Nagpur, besides other important postings — Yug had been questioned last week as part of the investigation into the blaze which also left 55 persons injured.

On December 30, the police had filed three first information reports against at least two of the pubs — The Mojo’s Bistro and 1Above — besides Ramesh Govani, the owner of the sprawling Kamala Mills Compound, Lower Parel, where the establishments are located.

The police action was initiated after the Mumbai Fire Brigade probe report said that the deadly fire started in The Mojo’s Bistro’s and spread to 1Above and other pubs in the vicinity leading to the tragedy.

“Since they (MFB) have opined that the fire started from The Mojo’s, we have included the names of the concerned as accused. Action will be taken soon,” Joint Police Commissioner (Law & Order) Deven Bharti informed the media on Saturday.

On Friday, Mumbai police announced a reward of Rs100,000 for the whereabouts of the absconding owner-partners of 1Above pub — Kripesh Sanghavi, Jigar Sanghavi and Abhijeet Mankar. —