Police have arrested 12 people in connection with the fire at Kamala Mills. File
THE Mumbai Police have arrested the three owners of Lower Parel’s 1Above resto-pub, Jigar and Kripesh Sanghvi and Abhijit Mankar, for alleged fraud pertaining to the Provident Fund (PF) of their employees. A case was registered on January 19 after a PF inspector approached the NM Joshi Marg police station. The three, already in custody for the December 29 fire in Kamala Mills in which 14 people died, were arrested on Thursday. “Our investigations revealed the three didn’t pay the PF amount, which is a salary component of every employee’s cost to company (CTC). They have cheated more than 100 employees and, according to the complaint, the amount involved is Rs 8.65 lakh,” said a police officer.
Senior police inspector Ahmed Pathan from NM Joshi Marg police station confirmed the arrests. “The three were in Arthur Road jail, we got them to the police station and arrested them again,” he said. The PF inspector started investigating the case following the Kamala Mills fire. The probe revealed the trio had not paid PF amount from May 2017 to November 2017.
The three have been booked under sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent) of the IPC along with Section 14 of the Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Act 1952. The three were produced in Bhoiwada court and remanded in police custody.
The three were in jail along with the owners of Mojo’s Bistro Yug Pathak and Yug Tulli. The Sanghvi brothers and Mankar were arrested on January 11. So far, the police have arrested 12 people in connection with the fire.