Kamala Mills fire: '1 Above' pub owner Abhijeet Mankar held

Mumbai: Abhijeet Mankar, owner of ‘1 Above’ pub, was arrested today in connection with the December 29 Kamala Mills fire here that claimed 14 lives. The 30-year-old hotelier was on the run along with co-owners of the pub, Kripesh Sanghavi and Jigar Sanghavi, since the day of the incident.

“Our team arrested owner of the 1 Above pub, Abhijeet Mankar, from Marine Lines in the early hours,” Ahmed Pathan, Senior Police Inspector, N M Joshi Marg Police Station told PTI. Last night, the investigating team of the city police had arrested 1 Above’s Jigar and Kripesh Sanghvi from Andheri, he said.

During the interrogation of the duo, we got the information about Mankar’s whereabouts and apprehended him from Marine Lines, Pathan said. The Sanghvi brothers were arrested from the Andheri area here, Additional Commissioner of Police S Jaikumar told PTI.

“Now our teams are in search of Yug Tulli, owner of Mojo’s Bistro pub, who is also on the run,” another police official said. Tulli was spotted at Hyderabad airport day before yesterday, but was unable to fly. He later disappeared from the spot, he said.

Our teams are trying to trace him in Hyderabad, the official said. “The hearing on Tulli’s anticipatory bail application is scheduled today, following which further action will be decided according to the orders of the court,” he said.

All the arrested accused will be produced before the Bhoiwada Court this afternoon, the official added. The police have so far arrested Vishal Kariya, a hotelier, for allegedly giving shelter to the Sanghvi brothers and Abhijeet Mankar — owners of the 1 Above pub.

The trio had been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code. Police had also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information about their whereabouts, police said.

Last week, Tulli’s partner in Mojos, Yug Pathak, son of retired Director General of Police and former Commissioner of Police, Pune, K K Pathak, was arrested. According to police, the action was taken on the basis of Fire Brigade report, which said the fire broke out from Mojo’s Bistro and spread to 1 Above.

The sections of culpable homicide not amounting to murder were added against the owners of Mojo’s Bistro, they said. On December 29, fire had swept through 1 Above and adjacent Mojo’s Bistro resto pub in Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai, resulting in the death of 14 people.