"Gujarat Home Minister wants action against those found responsible": SIT head on Rajkot fire incident

Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], May 29 : Days after a fire broke out at the TRP Gaming Zone in Rajkot in which various people lost their lives, including children, SIT head Subhash Trivedi on Wednesday said that the Gujarat Home Minister wants that an action to be taken against all those who are found responsible in any manner.
A massive fire broke out at a gaming zone in Gujarat's Rajkot city on May 25 evening resulting in the loss of 27 lives including children.
"Gujarat Home minister today called a meeting to review the progress in investigation by SIT in this case. He wants that we should go to the root cause of the incident and action should be taken against those found responsible in any manner," Trivedi said.
Rajkot Collector Prabhav Joshi informed that the death toll is 27 and all the DNA samples have matched.
"Death toll is 27. We have received 27 bodies. We had taken DNA samples from 27 relatives of the deceased persons. All 27 samples have matched and there are no more claimants. Earlier there was some confusion as certain relatives due to concerns about privacy did not want names to be announced," Collector Joshi said.
The main accused in the Rajkot TRP game zone fire incident was arrested by Banaskantha Local Crime Branch police and Rajkot Police on Sunday, said police.
The accused has been identified as Dhaval Thakkar, a resident of Abu Road. He had fled after the fire broke out in the game zone, which claimed 27 lives.
Earlier, three men arrested in connection with the game zone fire were sent to a 14-day police remand by a court in the Rajkot district on Monday.
The court of additional judicial magistrate BP Thakar remanded three accused, Yuvraj Hari Singh Solanki, Nitin Jain and Rahul Rathod, in police custody for two weeks, special public prosecutor Tushar Gokani said.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Special Public Prosecutor Tushar Gokani said, "The accused were brought before the court and further police custody of 14 days was sought. Out of 6 accused named in the FIR, 3 accused persons were arrested, of which two are named in the FIR and one of them was not named."
"The main ground of remand was that they were not cooperating during the investigation. They (the accused) are giving 'evasive replies' to whatever questions are asked and whatever documents are asked. They are saying it was burnt in the incident. They are not cooperating in the investigation and that was the main ground--to seek their cooperation and elicit the truth from them," said the official.
"We told the court that the main accused are on the run, and these accused persons make evasive replies and are not cooperating with the investigating agencies," Gokani said.
He said that the accused Solanki, tried to put up an act in his bid to express before the court that he was filled with remorse for whatever happened. "When he entered the court, he tried to project that he had remorse for the incident and everyone felt that he was crying. After five minutes, he was laughing and arguing with the court," Gokani said.
The Gujarat government ordered the suspension of seven officials, including two police inspectors and civic staff of Rajkot Municipal Corporation, for dereliction of duty in connection with the fire incident at a gaming zone in Rajkot.
Following the incident, all the gaming zones in Vadodara were inspected and temporarily shut down.