BENGALURU: The Halasuru Gate police, probing BBMP’s Quality Control Cell laboratory fire case, has issued a notice to BBMP Engineer-in-Chief BS Prahalad.
Prahalad has been given the responsibility to probe the incident in which nine staffers suffered burns. Upset with the police move, Prahalad said it is only following the process, but the authorities should not have made it public, as it creates doubts in the minds of people.
A senior police official from Halasuru Gate said that since Prahalad is the engineer-in-chief, the notice was sent to him. “We asked him about the quality assurance lab fire and how many staffers were affected, what kind of tests are conducted, safety measures being followed, the supervising officials during such tests, fire safety measures and other details. He has to appear before the inquiry officer and record his statements,” he said.
Sources in BBMP said Prahalad is upset. “The probe process involves giving notices and asking Palike officials to appear before the investigating officers. Since the police had mentioned my name in the notice, they could have given it to me or my office. I would have replied, but making it public creates doubts in the public mind,” said Prahalad, seeking a probe into the leaking of the letter.
Meanwhile, Halasuru police will visit the spot to begin its study. Prahalad is appointed by BBMP to conduct an internal technical inquiry into the cause of the fire accident.
Injured recovering, says BMCRI
Dr Ramesh Krishna, dean-director, of Bengaluru Medical College and Research Institute, said, the injured victims are better and are on a liquid diet, and are fitted out with nasal catheters. Operators have nasal catheters due to inflammation but there is no danger now,” said Dr Krishna. To a question on shifting victims to private hospitals, he said, so far no such proposal has come.