HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: The co-owner of Mojo’s Bistro, Yug Tuli, accused in the Kamala Mills fire tragedy in Mumbai, was traced in Hyderabad, but managed to give the slip to the polic thrice.
Tuli had gone to Hyderabad in a jeep with his wife. But when a Mumbai police team reached there, it realised that he had already left the city. “Now a team has gone to Kolkata,” said a police officer. However, Hyderabad police said he had gone to Amritsar by flight.
The police got wind of Tuli’s presence in Hyderabad when a traffic challan for Rs 1,400 was issued for his jeep for overspeeding on January 6.
He stayed in his friend’s apartment at the posh Banjara Hills area for a week. “Tuli has come to Hyderabad three days after the mishap. He stayed at his friend Surjeet Singh’s flat in Moksha Apartments,” said a source. But minutes before the Mumbai and Hyderabad police teams raided the flat, Tuli fled. His friend is also not traceable, said sources.
On the same day, Tuli was seen at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Police rushed to the airport but were late. “The sleuths checked the CCTV footage at the airport. He did not board a flight but had exited the airport. He was also traced to Gachibowli to another flat, but again slipped from there. Somebody must be tipping him about the raids,” the source said.
Meanwhile, 42-year-old hotelier, Vishal Karia, who was arrested by Mumbai police on Tuesday night, was remanded in police custody for eight days.
Karia is believed to have been shielding Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar —owners of the pub 1Above, where the inferno took 14 lives on December 29. The police have announced price money of Rs 1 lakh for information of the trio, who have been hiding since that day.