Anaj Mandi fire: Delhi Police arrests fourth accused

NEW DELHI: Nearly a year after a massive fire at a four-story building in north Delhi's Anaj Mandi area claimed the lives of 45 people, the fourth accused in the case, who had been absconding, has been arrested by the Delhi Police, officials said on Monday.

The police had earlier arrested three accused -- the building's owner Rehan, his manager Furkaan and another man named Mohammad Suhail -- in connection with the case.

The fourth accused, Mohammad Imraan, who is Rehan's brother and partly owns the building, was nabbed on Saturday, they said.

Imraan was absconding since the day of incident and was carrying a reward of Rs 50,000, police said.

On December 8 last year, a massive fire had ripped through a four-storey building housing illegal manufacturing units in north Delhi's congested Anaj Mandi area, killing 45 people including nine minors and injuring 21 others, including six minors.

Almost all the deceased were migrant labourers hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who stayed as well as worked inside the building.

After the incident, a case had been registered at Sadar Bazar police station which was later transferred to the Crime Branch.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) BK Singh said, "On Saturday, our team received information that Imraan would be coming to Delhi to attend a family function.

A trap was laid and Imraan was apprehended near Rameshwar Nagar in Azadpur.

" The officer said the building that had caught fire comprised of two adjacent properties, both of which are interconnected.

The property is jointly owned by Imraan and his brother Rehan and was purchased in 2007.

At that time, the building was only two-storey high but later, it was converted into a five-storey building, the officer said.

The two brothers had rented out the building to various entities and a number of small manufacturing units were running inside illegally.

He said Imraan is the owner of the ground, fourth and fifth floor of one of the properties at Anaj Mandi that caught fire and ran a small manufacturing unit on the ground floor where plastic plates, mugs, stools and hangers were made.

"The rest of the property had been rented out by him.

After the fire incident, he had been hiding and living with his relatives in Meerut, Agra, Raipur, Ajmer and Seelampur in Delhi," Singh said.

Imraan has been taken into five days police remand for further investigation, he said.