Regent Plaza blaze: Court dismisses interim bail of hotel owners, management

Officials accused of overlooking safety measures which led to casualties in fire

KARACHI: A sessions court dismissed on Tuesday interim bail of five accused, including the owners and top management of Regent Plaza Hotel, where, in December last year, a dozen people were killed and several others were injured after a fire broke out.

Regent Plaza Managing Director Zubairuddin Baweja, Chief Executive Officer Muzaffar Baweja, Chief Security Officer Major (retd) Muhammad Saad, Arshad Javed and Pervez Saleem have been accused of overlooking the safety measures at the hotel that caused casualties.

District South's additional sessions judge, Suhail Ahmed Laghari, rejected the bail. "Based on tentative assessment of evidence collected so far during the investigation, the accused deserve no leniency for grant of bail."



The two owners and three top management officials obtained protective bail from the Sindh High Court a week after the incident, apprehending their arrest at the hands of investigators for the fire, which, according to them, intensified due to the authorities' inefficiency.

Amir Mansoob Qureshi, the defence counsel, argued that the judicial magistrate who presided over the criminal proceedings initially had taken cognisance of the alleged offence under Sections 391 (qatl-i-khata), 337-A (1) (intentional hurt or injury), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code. All these sections are bailable, he argued.

The investigators replaced section 319 with section 322 (qatl-i-bis sabab) in the charge-sheet filed later but the magistrate has yet to take cognisance of the document.



Citing similar ground, Qureshi said his clients were still entitled to be released on bail as the authority concerned had not approved the prosecution's submission.

Ali Buriro, the lawyer who represented the legal heirs of the victims, opposed the confirmation of the interim bail, contending that the court may consider the investigators' findings that the deaths occurred due to the negligence of the accused.

"This is not an ordinary case. No safety measures were being followed by the hotel management as such the incident occurred. It is further argued that the bodies were found lying in bathrooms and not moved to the hospital in time," Buriro's arguments were quoted in the court order.



The deputy district public prosecutor, Shakeel Ahmed Abbasi, seconded the victims' lawyer on his arguments against the bail plea and added that a body was found lying in a bathroom after the hotel management declared completion of the rescue operation.

Abbasi cited the contention of the medico-legal report that nearly all the victims died due to suffocation, which indicates that there was ineffective or no ventilation system at the hotel. The report said that smoke from the fire travelled from the kitchen on the ground floor to the upper floors through the air-conditioning system.

As the judge announced the decision to dismiss the interim bail, he ordered the police to arrest the accused and follow the due course of criminal proceedings.