The Kolkata Police arrested two senior Wow! Momo employees on Friday in connection with a massive fire that claimed at least 25 lives earlier this week. An investigation was launched after a massive blaze ravaged two godowns on the outskirts of the city. Opposition leaders took out a protest rally through the capital city in the afternoon while Governor Ananada Bose insisted that there had been a “failure on the part of authorities”.
According to reports, manager Raja Chakraborty and deputy manager Manoranjan Sheet have been arrested in connection with the fire. The gutted buildings had included a warehouse belonging to the popular food chain. The fire broke out within a godown belonging to Pushpanjali Decorators around 3:00 am on Monday. It had quickly spread to the adjoining space operated by Wow! Momo — fuelled by a plethora of inflammable goods.
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An official statement from the fast food chain insisted that the fire had started due to “unauthorised cooking” at the other warehouse. The company also insisted that its premises were compliant with fire safety codes while the godown belonging to the decorator’s company did not have such measures.
Bengal Governor visits gutted godowns, flags lapses
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose also visited the gutted manufacturing unit on the outskirts of the city — pointing to a failure on the part of the local authorities.
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“I am here on a fact-finding exercise, not on a fault-finding exercise,” the governor said after visiting the spot..”I do not want to blame anybody, but the fact remains that there has been failure on the part of authorities concerned, else this kind of repeated incidents would not have taken place,” the governor told reporters.
BJP leads protest rally
Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari led a massive procession through the Narendrapur area on Friday. Hundreds of party supporters came together to demand the arrest of the Wow! Momo owners in connection with the deaths. Adhikari also alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress was shielding those responsible for the tragedy and showing insensitivity. He claimed that that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had not visited the site even five days after the incident.
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“The fire minister arrived 32 hours after the incident, while the CM did not find it important to come. The manner in which this issue is being handled is inhuman and reflects complicity of the ruling party…We also demand that the list of all those missing in the incident be published and all those responsible for landfilling the waterbodies be identified and brought under a thorough, impartial probe,” Adhikari said.
Displaying a purported photograph of one of the owners of the food chain, Adhikari claimed the picture was taken and shared by the owner on social media when he was part of the CM’s business delegation abroad in the past.Adhikari alleged that the state was not taking action against the food chain owners because of their proximity to the top brass of the government and the TMC.
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(With inputs from agencies) |
