The West Bengal Police Saturday formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the cause of the fire at a warehouse in Kolkata’s Anandpur in which the death toll has risen to 25.
According to senior police officers, the SIT will be led by the superintendent of police of the Baruipur police district. Police sources further stated that two additional superintendents of the Baruipur police district, the inspector-in-charge of the local Narendrapur police station, and the existing investigating officer in the matter will also be part of the SIT.
“Three people have been arrested in the matter and are being interrogated by the investigating officials. The SIT will now investigate the matter and file the chargesheet. The team will meet regularly to monitor the progress in the case,” said a senior officer of the Baruipur police district.
The fire broke out around 3 am on January 26 at a warehouse under the jurisdiction of Narendrapur police station. The warehouse belonged to a well-known momos company, Wow! Momo, and was packed with soft drinks and dry food packets.
According to police sources, the state fire services department and forensic team have submitted their preliminary report on the incident. The report indicates that the fire did not start from the Wow Momo factory, but rather from the adjacent Pushpanjali decorator’s warehouse.
The SIT was formed a day after the police arrested two managers of Wow Momo’s Anandapur warehouse. The police had earlier arrested the owner of Pushpanjali decorator, Gangadhar Das, and all three have been remanded in police custody till February 4.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah Saturday hit out at the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the fire. On the final day of his two-day visit to Bengal, Shah said the incident was not an accident but a result of “institutionalised corruption and criminal negligence” of the TMC government.
Questioning why the owner of Wow! Momo has not yet been arrested, Shah said, “Twenty-five people died, and 27 are missing. The momo factory owner is close to whom? With whom did he go abroad? Till now why has the momo factory owner not been arrested?”
“I want to ask if these were infiltrators, would her (Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee) reaction be the same. I demand that those responsible for this be put behind bars. There was no no-objections certificate (NOC), and godowns were built on a wetland. Why was the godown locked? people were burnt alive,” he said.