'Our 3 employees also lost their lives’: What Wow! Momo managers told court; toll rises to 27 in Kolkata fire tragedy

KOLKATA: Two more persons, both senior employees of Wow! Momo, were arrested in connection with the fire that broke out in Anandapur in the early hours of Monday.

The death toll has risen to 27.

The total arrests in the incident now stands at three. The lessee of the second warehouse, decorator firm owner Gangadhar Das, was arrested on Tuesday night.




The manager, Manoranjan Sit, and deputy manager of the Wow! Momo warehouse, Raja Chakraborty, were arrested from the Narendrapur area on Thursday night.

They were presented at the Baruipur sub-divisional court on Friday, where they were sent to custody for five days. While Sit has been working with the momo company for more than 10 years, Chakraborty was employed three years ago.

At the court, the defence lawyers pointed out that the actual fire started from their neighbouring warehouse.

They stated that three of their own employees lost their lives, implying that they were the victims — and not perpetrators — of the incident.

The defence also pointed out that they had adequate fire extinguishers — 33 to be precise — inside the warehouse. They also pointed out that adequate compensation was provided and stated that all staff — including the deceased and, in this case, the accused — underwent fire drills. They thus prayed for bail from the court.

Fire safety and fire training completion certificates of all employees working at the momo chain's warehouse, including the two deceased employees, Basudev Halder and Pankaj Halder, were also submitted in the court. Other documents submitted in the court included videos of fire drills, as well as photographs of fire extinguishers installed within the warehouse and of entry and exit points.

The public prosecutor opposed bail and pleaded for police custody, stating that the managers could not escape responsibility.

He stated that only the forensic report could establish the spot from where the fire originated. As such, making assumptions then was merely guesswork. He stated that questioning the accused was necessary to know the sequence of events, their role during the fire, and why so much combustible material was stored at the warehouse. In the end, the court allowed five days of police custody of the accused.

The police are investigating their whereabouts and roles during the fire that broke out in the warehouse on the fateful night.