Bagree Market fire: FIR lodged against CEO, directors of Bagree Estate, firefighting still on even after 65 hours
Kolkata, Sept 18 (IBNS): When efforts to douse smouldering pocket fires in central Kolkata's Bagree Market are in full swing even 65 hours after the outbreak, the city police on Tuesday lodged an FIR against the directors and CEO of Bagree Estate Private Limited, a holding company that owns the commercial building on fire, officials said.
According to reports, after discovering a grave violation of fire safety norms inside the multi-storey market, state fire and emergency services had registered a complaint with Burrabazar Police Station following which police lodged the FIR.
Bagree Estate Private Limited's two directors, Radha Bagree and Varun Raj Bagree, and CEO, Krishna Kumar Kothari alias Kallu, have been named in the FIR.
"These persons have been charged under IPC sections 120B and 436, and sections 11C, 11J and 11L of West Bengal Fire Services Act," a Kolkata Police official told IBNS.
The trio has been absconding since the deadly fire broke out in the wee hours of Sunday.
Meanwhile, two and half days after the outbreak, hundreds of firefighters and more than 30 fire tenders are battling to douse a large number of pocket fires in the six-storey as well as to cool down the building on fire.
"Firemen are currently tackling several smouldering pocket fires, which have been noticed on second, third and fourth floors of the six-storey market's B, C and D blocks, and our 'cooling off' process is on at those areas of the building where the blaze has already been doused," a senior official of state fire and emergency services department told IBNS.
"We are expecting that it would take another day to bring the Bagree Market fire completely under control," the official added.
Earlier, around 2:30 am on Sunday, the major fire broke out on the ground floor of six-storey commercial building, Bagree Market, in central Kolkata's Canning Street area and it spread to other floors quickly as several inflammable objects were stored there.
A fire and emergency services official said that the fire might have started due to a short-circuit in an electricity distribution box beside the building.
West Bengal Fire services' DG Jagmohan said, "It was a huge fire and firefighting operation became more difficult as several inflammable objects were stored inside the multi-storey market."
"No civilian has been injured so far in the incident while few of our firemen were minorly hurt or fell sick during firefighting operations," the official added.
According to locals, hundreds of shops inside the building have been gutted completely due to the fire.
"Just a month before Durga puja, products and machinery worth several crore rupees have been gutted in the major fire outbreak," a local trader told IBNS.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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