LAKHAN TOMAR Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) -The applicant Lakhan Tomar has filed Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 17994 of 2006, applicant Asit Gupta has filed Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 14280 of 2006 and applicant Siddharth Manohar has filed Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 13497 of 2006 with a prayer that they may be released on bail in Case Crime No. 95 of 2006 under Sections 304, 308 and 427, I.P.C. P.S. Civil Lines, district Meerut.

(2.) IT is a case arising out of a most important incident in which about 65 person lost their lives and more than 200 persons sustained burn injuries. The prosecution story in brief is that the F.I.R. of this case has been lodged by Sri R. P. Singh, Station House Officer P.S. Civil Lines, district Meerut on 10.4.2006 at about 9.05 p.m. in respect of the incident which had occurred on 10.4.2006 at 6.00 pm. at Victoria Park, Meerut. The F.I.R. has been lodged against the applicants and some other persons alleging that a message was flashed by the District Control Room at 6.00 p.m. that a fire was broken in the exhibition organized at Victoria Park, on that information, the first informant alongwith some other police personnel reached at Victoria Park and saw that the Fire Brigade was trying to extinguish the fire and the police personnel of different police stations including the senior officers were busy in shifting the injured to different hospitals and the dead bodies to the mortuary at the medical college Meerut. The Police force of various police stations of district Meerut and other districts, P.A.C. and vehicles of fire brigade reached at the place of occurrence. The organizers of the said exhibition namely Lakhan Tomar, Asit Gupta and Siddarth Manohar had not made appropriate arrangements to extinguish the fire and due to their gross negligence the massive fire tragedy had taken place in which many persons have lost their lives and many persons sustained burn injuries and the property as a whole also burnt to ashes.

(3.) HEARD Sri Virendra Bhatia, senior advocate assisted by Sri Nitin Sharma, Sri V. P. Srivastrava, senior advocate, assisted by Sri Lav Srivastava and Sri S. K. Tyagi, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri S. M. A. Kazmi, learned advocate general of the State of U. P. assisted by Sri Mewa Lal Shukla, learned A.G.A. for the State of U. P., Sri Ravi Kiran Jain, senior advocate and Sri Satish Trivedi, senior advocate, assisted by Sri Swetashwa Agarwal, for Meerut Victorari Park Agnikand Aahat Kalyan Samiti, Meerut.