FIR lodged in Mundka fire incident, company owners arrested, building owner absconding

The Delhi Police have registered an FIR in the massive Mundka fire incident that claimed the lives of 27 people, an official said on Saturday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Sameer Sharma said that the FIR has been registered under sections 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide), 120 (Concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Most of the people were present on the second floor of the four-storey building when the blaze erupted on Friday evening.

The fire first broke out on the first floor which housed a CCTV and router manufacturing company.

The police have arrested the owners of that company, identified as Harish Goel and Varun Goel and their antecedents are being examined, the senior police official said.

Meanwhile, the owner of the building, identified as Manish Lakra who resided on the top floor, has gone absconding.

It is yet to be learnt whether he was present in the building at the time of the incident.

"His whereabouts are still unknown," the official said, adding searches are on to nab him.

Besides the 27 victims, 12 persons have sustained burn injuries.

As per latest reports, NDRF teams are still conducting a search operation at the site.

However, the death toll in the Mundka inferno may further increase as search operation teams have found more charred remains from the second floor of the ill-fated four-storey building.

"The death toll may likely go up," Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg told IANS on Saturday.

The top fire department official also shared a picture of the remains that were found just minutes ago by the NDRF team present at the scene of the blaze that erupted on Friday.

The bodies that were recovered fare yet to be identified and the help of forensic teams will be utilised for the purpose.

The reason being most of the bodies were burnt to such an extent that, even it was difficult to establish whether charred remains were of a man or a woman.