There’s some serious legal drama unfolding in Rajkot, Gujarat. A court has just demanded a status report from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that’s digging into the tragic ‘TRP Game Zone’ fire. This all kicked off because a plea was filed, asking for criminal cases to be registered against several high-ranking officials who were either transferred or suspended following the horrific incident.

Let’s rewind a bit: On May 25, a devastating fire tore through the TRP game zone, claiming 27 lives, including four children under 12. This game zone had been operating for years without any proper permissions or licenses – a ticking time bomb, it seems. The blaze spread rapidly through the temporary structure, with no fire extinguishers, emergency exits, or trained personnel in sight to manage the chaos.

Now, back to the courtroom action. The plea filed by Vinesh Chhaya, and represented by lawyer Rajesh Jalu, is calling for First Information Reports (FIRs) against some top brass, including the then Rajkot police commissioner Raju Bhargava, municipal commissioner Anand Patel, and two IPS officers who were transferred post-incident. Nine other officials were suspended.

The petition isn’t holding back, arguing that the very reasons these officials were transferred or suspended should be enough to slap them with FIRs under serious charges like culpable homicide not amounting to murder (IPC Section 304), causing hurt by rash or negligent acts (IPC Section 337), and causing grievous hurt (IPC Section 338).

Additional Judicial Magistrate B.P. Thakar has issued a notice to the SIT to cough up a status report by June 20. The clock is ticking.

For those wondering, the list of officials in hot water is quite extensive. Apart from Bhargava and Patel, it includes Sudhirkumar Desai, the then Deputy Commissioner of Police, and Vidhi Choudhary, the Additional Commissioner of Police. Both were transferred and put on hold just two days after the incident.

The suspended civic officials list reads like a who’s who of Rajkot’s municipal setup: Chief Fire Officer Ilesh Kher, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Bhikhabhai Theba, Assistant Engineer Jaideep Chaudhary, Assistant Town Planner Gautam Joshi, Fire Station Officer Rahit Vigora, Deputy Executive Engineer M.R. Suma, Assistant Engineer Paras Kothia, and Police Inspectors V.R. Patel and N.I. Rathod.

And there’s more – Kiritsinh Jadeja, the fifth person arrested in connection to the fire, has been sent into an eight-day police remand.

Let’s see how this legal saga unfolds. Will the court’s demand for a report from the SIT lead to justice for the 27 lives lost? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: the heat is on in Rajkot, and we’re not just talking about the summer weather.

  Gujarat, Special Investigation team (SIT), TRP game Zone