BENGALURU: Five employees of a bar-cum- restaurant were killed in their sleep when a major fire broke out at
Kumbaara Sangha building in Kalasipalya here in the wee hours on Monday, police said here.
The restaurant is situated on the ground floor of the 70-year-old building, said police.
Experts from Forensic Science Laboratory have arrived at the scene.
The deceased have been identified as Swami (23), Prasad (20) and Mahesh (35), all natives of Tumkur; Manjunath (45) a native of Hassan and Keerthi (24) a native of Mandya.
Keerthi (24)
Smoke billowing out of the restaurant was noticed by locals at around 2.30am, following which
fire services were rushed to the spot.
Manjunath (45)
According to police, bar owner R V Dayashanjar is incommunicado.
"We called him on his mobile around 4 AM, asking him to rush to the spot. Till now, there is no sign of him and his mobile is switched off. We shall find his address and send police in a while," police said.
Bengaluru development minister K J George who visited the spot along with Bengaluru Mayor R Sampath Raj announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased.
Condoling the deaths, George said, "Whoever is guilty in the incident will not be spared."
"This is a 70-year old building where the incident happened.. We'll wait for the forensic and postmortem report.. It appears all the five died of suffocation," he said.
Sampath Raj said the BBMP will carry out fire safety audit of all high rise and commercial buildings.
He said several bars had already been sealed and notices issued to some others for violation of relevant rules.
Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said at the site that a case has been registered against the owner of the resto bar under section 304 of the IPC which pertains to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Teams had been formed to nab the owner.
Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy told reporters at the spot that it was the responsibility of the owner to look after the safety of his employees and "police will book cases against him and arrest him."
Reddy also said the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) should have ensured safety.
"BBMP and excise department should have looked into the safety aspect of the building. The owner should have also considered whether to allow his employees to stay in the building."
Police suspect that though the owner was the licence holder to run the business, he had leased it to someone else.
The blaze was put out, but the cause of the fire is still not known. Police are investigating.
