Pramesh S Jain
A
day after the massive fire mishap at EV store on Dr. Rajkumar road on tuesday,killing a 28-year-old accountant, Priya the Rajajinagar police arrested the owner and manager of the store under death due to negligence .
The accused have been identified as Punith Gowda (36), a resident of Yeshwanthpur and the owner of My EV store,and Yuvaraju (37),a resident of Rajajinagar and the store manage,were on the run,soon after the accident .
Based on the complaint by the victim’s brother,the duo was booked under Section 106 (death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide)of the BNS .
The duo was produced before the court and released on conditional bail .
The fire according to the police broke out in the store suspected to be due to short circuit while charging a battery.
An explosion followed by fire spreading to the entire shop burning 25 vehicles,furniture and other electrical items in the shop.There were seven employees including 28-year-old Priya,at the time of the accident.
While six of them ran out,Priya took cover in the cabin and choked due to heavy smoke engulfed and died later .
The Fire and emergency service personnel who reached the spot doused the fire after two hours and found that the store did not have required fire fighting equipment.
The owner and the manager did not provide any safety measures not provided training to the staff on how to safeguard themselves at the time of any eventuality,a senior police officer, said .
The staff did not know how to operate fire extinguisher found in the shop,They are all panicked and ran to take safety cover instead of trying to douse the fire.
However required training on what to do at the time of eventualities could have minimize the casualties he added.
