Mumbai: Three owners of a tony pub gutted in
the Kamala Mills Compound blaze were today arrested for not
paying their employees' Provident Fund (PF) dues, police said.
Kripesh Sanghvi, his brother Jigar and their partner
Abhijeet Mankar, the owners of '1 Above' pub, were arrested by
the N M Joshi Marg police, Deputy Commissioner of Police
(DCP), Zone III, Virendra Mishra, said.
The three had allegedly not paid PF dues of Rs 8.65 lakh
that they owed their employees.
A case was registered against them under relevant
sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Provident Fund
Act, he told PTI.
The case was registered after the Kamala Mills fire and
the arrests were made today, the DCP said.
The three were already in custody in the Kamala Mills
fire case and had now been arrested in the PF payment default
matter, police said.
They were booked under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach
of trust) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant,
or by banker, merchant or agent), and section 14 of the PF Act
(filing prosecution against defaulters), they said.
The trio were produced before a court which remanded them
to police custody till February 10, said N M Joshi Marg police
station senior inspector Ahmed Pathan.
The Sanghvis and Mankar were arrested in connection with
the December 29, 2017, fire at the Kamala Mills in which 14
people were killed and over 21 injured.
'1 Above' and another pub Mojo's Bistro were gutted in
the devastating blaze. The pubs shared a common terrace.
The two brothers and Mankar were charged with culpable
homicide not amounting to murder, among other offences, police
had said.
PTI
