“The Supreme Court of India has directed to take certain measures for the safety of COVID-19 patients. It is clearly underlined in the Supreme Court order issued last year that ‘the COVID hospital who have not obtained NOC from fire department of the state should be asked to immediately apply for one, and after carrying our necessary inspection, the decision can be taken. Those COVID hospitals who have not renewed their NOC should immediately take steps for renewal on which appropriate inspection be taken and decision be taken. In event, COVID hospital is found not having NOC or not having renewal, appropriate action be taken by the state’,” said a senior Crime Branch officer. After the above SC order, the Maharashtra state government issued an order on April 12, saying: “The SC order itself is a substantial law and directs that the Fire Audit of each COVID hospital shall be carried out once in a month and inform the deficiency to the management of the hospital and report to the government for taking up follow-up action.”

“As such, on behalf of the state government, this Directorate directs all the regulators responsible to ensure the provisions of the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006 to immediately act upon and plan action to prioritise fire safety of vulnerable occupancies,” reads the state government order.

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“The license agencies appointed by this Directorate as well as the fire officers already served in the regular fire service and having vast experience and desired qualifications to be used as an extended arms and there has to be appropriate check and balance by serving fire officers by way of checking of the fire and life safety systems while granting occupancy certificate and renewal of fire approvals to critical occupancies,” reads the order, which further says that the ‘Form B issued by license agency shall also be cross checked by fire officials’.

The state government, in its order issued on September 16, 2015, had emphasised the importance of “fire audit”. In a bid to thoroughly investigate the horrendous fire incident, the Crime Branch has written a letter to Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) in which they have sent a list of questions, including who was responsible to properly implement the SC order, has the concerned officer properly executed the order, etc.

“If the dereliction of duty of civic officials is found in our investigation, legal action will be taken against them, too, as there is loss of human lives in the fire incident,” said the senior police officer. The officer further added, ““In a bid to secure a fire NOC from VVCMC, Vijay Vallabh hospital in its letter on February 23, 2018, had submitted a list of documents including a provisional NOC issued by the (fire) department, a Final Fire NOC, the Form B issued previously, a drawing of the typical floor plan, a fire hydrant drawing, system working photos, a hami patra and a demand draft. But there was no mention of the Fire Risk audit report in the request letter to secure the fire NOC.”

Though the VVCMC commissioner D Gangatharan chose to remain tightlipped despite receiving a list of queries from mid-day, the chief fire officer Dilip Palav said, “After receiving Form B from the fire agency, our fire officials go and check if the fire installations are functioning properly.” The bail applications of the arrested accused, managing director and CEO Dr Dilip Shah and chief administrative Officer Dr. Shailesh Pathak were rejected.