Regent Plaza blaze: SHC grants protective bail to hotel employees

They have been directed to surrender before a trial court within four days

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) granted on Saturday protective bail to the employees of the Regent Plaza in a case relating to a fire in which 12 people perished and more than 70 were injured.

The blaze broke out in the kitchen located on the ground floor of the four-star hotel located on Sharae Faisal and swept through the building, trapping scores of hotel guests in their rooms.

Granting them bail in the sum of Rs200,000 each, the court directed them to surrender before the trial court within four days when their bail will cease.

The accused, including Muzaffar Baweja, Zubairuddin Baweja, Saad, Arshad and Javed, had approached the court seeking protective bail to avert their arrest by the police.

The applicants said the Saddar police had booked them in a case relating to the incident at Regent Plaza. They claimed that the fire broke out accidentally but the police are treating it as an act of negligence and carelessness. The applicants said they are saddened by the loss of lives and are ready to cooperate with the police in the investigation. However, they apprehended their arrest.

The court was pleaded to restrain the police from arresting the applicants by granting protective pre-arrest bail to them.

After hearing initial arguments, the court granted protective bail to the accused, subject to furnishing a surety of Rs200,000 each. Speaking about the protective bail of the accused, investigation officer DSP Irshan Karim said that the hotel management not only failed to follow the security plan but also failed to inform emergency services on time.

"No doubt, negligence is behind the deadly fire and the responsible party should be arrested and punished," the officer explained.

Progress of investigation

In the first phase of the investigation, the police have started recording the statements of the relevant persons to ensure the arrests of the suspects. However, they were unable to arrest any of the suspects.

"We have recorded the statements of nearly 15 people so far, including the employees and guests at the hotel," said DSP Karim. "But we have yet to record the statements of the rest of the people, including the owners and management of the hotel."

He claimed that the police have asked the owners and management to record their statements and they will be recorded in a couple of days. The police are also looking for those who have yet to record their statements and some of the employees of the hotel have switched their cellphones off, he claimed, adding they are trying to gather residential details of those employees.

"We have to record remaining statements and complete our investigation on time as we have to make our case strong so that the court rejects their bails and we can arrest the responsible people," he remarked.

The police had registered on Thursday an FIR against Regent Plaza's owners and management after an inquiry report regarding the incident was completed and submitted to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. The FIR was registered at Saddar police station citing offences of criminal negligence, carelessness and not following the security plan in place for emergency situations.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2016.