Rajkot gaming zone fire: Due to “dereliction of duty,” the Gujarat government suspends seven officers, two of whom are police officers.

Two police inspectors, two executive engineers, one assistant engineer, one town planner, and a fire station officer were among the officials from Gujarat suspended on Monday due to suspected neglect of duty regarding the May 25 gaming zone fire in Rajkot, which claimed the lives of 28 people.

The seven suspended officials include police inspectors V R Patel, who headed the Rajkot taluka police station in 2023, and N I Rathod, who held additional responsibility for the Rajkot city police licence branch. They also include executive engineers M R Suma and Paras Khothiya from the Roads and Buildings Department, two employees of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation, assistant town planner Gautam Joshi and assistant engineer Jaydip Chaudhary, and Rohit Vigora, who oversaw the fire station on Kalavad Road.

a city on Saturday, leaving nine people injured and 28 dead, including children. Officials stated that there was no no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department for the TRP gaming zone.

The state government issued an official statement stating that Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who visited the Rajkot fire scene on Sunday, gave the orders for the officials’ suspension. It stated that the police let “the gaming zone to open without due approvals and thereby showed utter carelessness and committing dereliction of duty” .

One of the companies running the TRP gaming zone, Raceway Enterprise, filed an application last year for a booking licence for their park under the Gujarat Entertainment Tax Act.

Inspectors Patel and Rathod of the police department handled the case. The Rajkot taluka police station inspector received the application and was asked to provide his opinion. This was done by the office of the Rajkot municipal police commissioner.