Bombay HC grants Kamala Mills owners bail in fire case

MUMBAI: A vacation bench of the Bombay high court on Wednesday granted bail to Kamala Mills owners Ramesh Gowani and Ravi Bhandari in a criminal case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with the December 29 fire that broke out in two adjoining rooftop restaurants and killed 14 persons.

Justice V L Achliya, pronouncing the order at 8.20 pm, granted bail for a surety of R 50,000 each but allowed provisional cash bail of Rs 2 lakh for two weeks.

The duo were directed to surrender their passport, not to travel abroad without trial court permission, and to report to the NM Joshi marg police station once a month.

Gowani, a builder, is the owner of the mill land and he as well as Bhandari are directors in Kamala Mills Ltd.

The high court appeared to accept submissions of their counsel Shyam Dewani, who argued that the builder's case was "totally different" from that of the restaurant owners and said they could not be prosecuted for a grave offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder merely because they did not inform the BMC about alleged irregularities. He said there was nothing against Gowani apart from generalised allegations.

Restaurateur plea for bail adjourned in SC: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the state to produce a report by Friday, if any was filed by a committee appointed by the Bombay high court, about the alleged destruction of a toilet on the rooftop of a building in Kamala Mills where a fire at two restaurants killed 14 in December. The apex court also adjourned a bail plea made by Yug Tuli, co-owner of Mojo's Bistro, in the case.

The Supreme Court bench had posted for orders on Wednesday Tuli's bail plea but when the matter came up, an advocate for the victims who had intervened mentioned that an independent committee appointed by the high court court had last Saturday observed during an inspection that a toilet area was "destroyed'' overnight on May 11-12 and sought a report from the civic chief.

The Supreme Court then asked the state counsel Nishant Katneshwarkar to produce a report, if any, if submitted by Thursday. The Supreme Court adjourned Tuli's matter to Friday.

The Bombay high court had last month rejected Tuli's bail plea. Tuli (29) has been in custody since January in a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.