In his complaint, Dhananjay Saha (42), a resident of Rail Park, has alleged that the owners were responsible for the death of his wife as they had closed the shop’s shutters when the fire broke out on Friday. He has demanded that the owners should be charged with culpable homicide, said a police officer.
Sub-Divisional police
officer Ashok Roy said shop owner Jeevan Saha, against whom a non-bailable arrest warrant was pending, has been traced to a nursing home in Kolkata. A police picket was posted outside the nursing home, he added.
Another owner, Narayan Saha was at present in the hospital undergoing treatment. An FIR was filed against the two for pulling the shutter down that led to the deaths from asphyxiation. “Most of the other shop owners are admitted to different hospitals and nursing homes in the area, and we will question them once they are discharged,” said the officer. “Investigation is in progress to ascertain if Jeevan mislead the fire officers by claiming that there was no one trapped inside the shop,” said a police officer.
13 people choked to death on May 16 when a spark from a welding machine set a tarpaulin sheet on fire causing dense smoke inside the shop.