The Gujarat High Court on Monday came down heavily on the state government over the Rajkot game zone fire that killed 28 people, including several children.
During a hearing on the matter, a special bench of Justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan M Desai said that it could no longer “trust” the state government after being told that two gaming zones had been operating without required permits.
The high court also slammed the Rajkot Municipal Corporation and asked if it turned a blind eye towards the gaming zones that were operating without due licenses for over 24 months.
“This has been going on for two-and-a-half years (referring to the Rajkot gaming zone). Are we to assume you turned a blind eye? What do you and your followers do?” the court asked, according to a news channel.
Earlier on Sunday, the high court took the suo-motu cognisance of the Rajkot gaming zone fire, terming the incident a “man-made disaster”.
According to reports, the gaming zone operators didn’t have the mandatory permits from the city’s municipal corporation.
As many as 28 people, including nine children, were killed after a massive fire raged through the game zone on Saturday evening.
Following the incident, the Gujarat government ordered formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident and submit its report within three days.