HC to hear Rajkot gaming zone fire case today; SIT report in 72 hours

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Gujarat High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the incident and the PIL will come up for hearing on Monday.

A special bench of the Gujarat High Court, comprising Justice Biren Vaishnav and Justice Devan Desai, observed that «prima facie, a man-made disaster has occurred where innocent lives of children have been lost» as such recreation facilities have come up without adequate approvals from the competent authorities.

«The gaming zone in Rajkot appears to have taken advantage of the loopholes in the Gujarat Comprehensive General Development Control Regulations to pave its way for creating illegal recreational activities,» the bench. It stated that it has also taken note of such gaming zones that have come up in Ahmedabad «which pose significant threat to public safety, especially to innocent children.»

Meanwhile, the state government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by Additional Director General of Police, Subhash Trivedi, which has to submit its report in 72 hours. Police have already filed an FIR naming six people, including the owners. Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargav told the media that two of the six have been arrested while four teams have been formed by the crime branch to nab the rest.

Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, along with MoS home Harsh Sanghavi, visited the spot on Sunday morning. Patel is holding a high-level meeting on Sunday evening to take stock of such gaming zones across the state.