Rajkot game zone fire: 4th co-owner held; one died in blaze, reveals DNA test

One of the owners of the TRP Game Zone in Rajkot, where at least 27 people died in a massive fire on May 25, also lost his life in the flames, while a fourth co-owner has been arrested, taking the total number of arrests to five.

The one who died has been identified as Prakash Hiran. His brother, Jitendra Hiran, had filed a missing complaint with the police claiming that there was no contact with his brother after the fire tragedy, his phone was switched off, and his car was found at the game zone.

CCTV footage of the game zone that was captured at the time of the fire also confirmed his presence at the site.

Forensic report

The forensics department took DNA samples of Prakash’s mother and later confirmed that Prakash Hiran had also died in the blaze. The flames had burnt several bodies beyond recognition and the authorities have been using DNA analysis to identify the dead.

“Out of six persons named in the FIR, one, Prakash Hiran, has died in the fire. During examination, the DNA sample of one of the deceased matched with that of Hiran’s kin, confirming his death,” an official told news agency PTI.

Prakash Hiran was a 60 per cent stakeholder in the TRP Game Zone and was one of the 6 accused named in the FIR by the Gujarat Police. He was a partner in Raceway Enterprises along with 4 of the other accused.

One more arrest

Late on Tuesday, Gujarat Police arrested one more partner of TRP game zone. The total number of arrests in connection with the incident has now gone up to five, according to police.

Kiritsinh Jadeja, a partner in Raceway Enterprises, which operated the game zone, was arrested from Rajkot-Kalavad road on Tuesday night, Rajkot Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Parthrajsinh Gohil told PTI.

Jadeja is among six partners of the TRP game zone named as accused in the fire incident and booked under various Indian Penal Code provisions, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

“We arrested accused Kiritsinh Jadeja near Rajkot last night, taking the total number of arrests made in the case so far to five,” Gohil said.

Four in custody

Earlier, the police arrested Dhaval Thakkar, Yuvrajsinh Solanki, and Rahul Rathod, co-owners of the TRP Game Zone, and Nitin Jain, the manager of the game zone. They have been sent to two weeks of police custody.

They have been booked under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 337 (causing hurt by an act that endangers the life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt to a person by doing an act that endangers their life or personal safety), and 114 (someone present when the offence is committed).

SIT questions 25

A senior official also told PTI that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was set up by the Gujarat government to probe the incident has questioned more than 25 persons and confiscated several documents in the course of its investigation.

“The state government has given us clear instructions to conduct a free and fair probe to ensure that injustice is not meted out to anyone. We have so far conducted a preliminary probe and seized all the relevant documents related to the game zone, and further investigation is on,” said the head of the SIT, police officer Subhash Trivedi.

As many as 25 bodies have so far been identified and handed over to the relatives, officials said.

(With agency inputs)