Kamala Mills fire: Ex-Mumbai Police chief Julio Ribeiro moves HC, calls for judicial inquiry

Mumbai: Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro on Tuesday filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court demanding setting up of a judicial commission of inquiry on Kamala Mills Fire incident.

This comes days after the authorities arrested Yug Pathak - one of the owners of Mojo's Bistro pub, from where the devastating blaze started on December 29 and soon spread to other areas of the Kamala Mills Compound.

The other owner of the pub is yet to be arrested. 

The Mumbai Police had earlier booked two owners of the pub for culpable homicide. 

Pathak was arrested after the authorities announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to whosoever provides information about the whereabouts of three owners of 1Above pub in the Kamala Mills Compound – Kripesh Mansukhlal Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar. 

The trio is still absconding and a lookout notice has been issued against them. 

The massive blaze at the Kamala Mills Compound had claimed at least 14 lives and injured several others on December 29. 

Mumbai's fire department, in its report, said that a lit charcoal used in a hookah at Mojo's Bistro Restaurant caused the blaze, which then spread to '1Above' pub. 

The department further claimed that Mojo's Bistro pub could not produce the required documents required to run a pub.

The police later arrested two managers of '1Above' pub  - Kevin Bawa and Libson Lopez.

An offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under sections 304, 337, 338, 34 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the three owvers of '1Above' at the NM Joshi Marg police station following the incident.