Before it housed a commercial unit, the Mundka building where a fire broke out on Friday, killing 27 people, was temporarily used by a BJP member in 2015 as an election office taken on rent.
In the run-up to the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls, BJP candidate from Mundka, Master Azad Singh, had used the building as his poll office. Singh, who lost to AAP candidate Sukhbir Dalal, confirmed the same: “We paid rent for the building… at the time, it was empty and had only two floors… The office was closed after the polls ended.”
AAP’s MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak hit out at the BJP over this and said this shows that the building had the party’s protection: “This could be why despite the license being canceled, it kept functioning discreetly.”
Pathak said there are photographs of the building owner with Singh. To this, Singh said, “During elections, several people took photographs, but that doesn’t mean I know him personally… It is for AAP to answer how a liquor shop was running there (before). That means the Delhi government was aware of what was happening here.”
He also said the area MLA and councillor are from the AAP. “What were they doing?… Is it a crime to take a building on rent for opening an election office?… it is for those who got it constructed and those who were running illegal businesses to answer how such a mishap took place.”
The Indian Express has also learned that the owner of the four-storey commercial building got a factory license for the premises under a self-assessment scheme in 2016. However, the North MCD canceled it after it was found that the building did not meet specific criteria, it is learned.
In 2019, a liquor store was also opened on the ground floor, which was sealed by the monitoring committee formed by the Supreme Court to act against illegal construction in the national capital for violations. Sources in the North MCD said the owner closed the shop and paid a penalty, following which the space was de-sealed in 2020.
A senior official in the North MCD, who is part of the team looking into the fire, said, “Prima facie our investigation suggests that while the factory license was revoked in 2017, commercial activities might not have started immediately else the monitoring committee would have noticed in 2019.”
“We are trying to gather details, but it seems it started recently,” he added.
According to police, the owner had a real estate office on the ground floor while the first, second and third floors housed the office of Cofe Impex Pvt Ltd, which imported parts of CCTV cameras and routers and employed around 100 people. Police said the company owners took the first floor on rent in 2018, the second floor in 2019, and in 2021, they took the third floor.
North MCD standing committee chairperson Jogi Ram Jain said a survey has been started across areas under the corporation to ascertain the status of such “factories” being run. “A report is also due which will clear how the factory (commercial space) was operational,” he said.
AAP’s Pathak said that even if the North MCD revoked or canceled the factory licence, “illegal activities” continued on the premises. “It means that the corporation was aware of the building premises being misused, which is why they got the license revoked… so how did factories continue to operate in a lal dora region,” he said.
Lal Dora land (or red tape property) refers to village land which historically includes of village habitation. Small shops, grocery, medical, tailor and kirana stores are among businesses allowed in this region. Factories or industries are not permitted to operate.
Pathak added, “The building’s license was canceled after complaints by locals, yet it kept functioning. Industrial activities were going on in the complex despite the SC monitoring committee sealing a portion of the building. We all saw that 27 lives were lost, and several people were injured, in the fire that broke out in Mundka. It was a devastating incident and the people of Delhi deserve to get justice.”
A senior North MCD official said there are several godowns, plastic factories and other such businesses running on lal dora or resettlement colonies across Delhi, including in Mundka, without a licence.
Responding to Pathak, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the building owner had approached the monitoring committee, removed the shop, paid the penalty, and got the space de-sealed in 2020. “In fact, it is the Delhi government which owes a reply on how this building was given an electricity connection and how a Delhi government liquor shop was opened on lal dora land,” he said.
On questions about a liquor vend operating from the building, Pathak said: “Before the new liquor policy came out, the only rule for opening liquor shops was that it should not be near a school. Rules were not changed for many years and most of the private liquor shops operated in the same area for years.”
Meanwhile, Lt-Governor Anil Baijal Sunday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the fire.