BMC responsible for deaths at City Kinara restaurant

The Tragedy: What happened?

- HT Correspondent

Almost ten years after eight people, seven of them students, died in a fire in a Kurla restaurant, the Bombay High Court has held the civic administration responsible for the tragedy and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to pay ₹50 lakh each to the families of the eight victims.

The fire broke out on October 16, 2015, at Hotel City Kinara, on Premier Road in Kurla West, where seven students from the nearby Don Bosco Institute of Technology were seated, out for lunch. The eighth patron, seated near the youngsters, was an engineer with a private firm.

All eight patrons had been ushered to the air-conditioned mezzanine, where the fire later broke out. The blaze was caused by a leak in an LPG cylinder stored nearby. It took only minutes for the flames to engulf the mezzanine, killing all eight victims within minutes.

On Tuesday, a division bench of Justice BP Colabawalla and Justice Firdosh P Pooniwalla said the fire could have been entirely prevented if the BMC had acted on finding that the eatery had committed several breaches of fire safety norms. It held that the "deliberate inaction and negligence" on the part of civic officials in fulfilling their duties had resulted in the fire and loss of lives.