MUMBAI, April 27: A political slugfest ensued on Monday over the blaze at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai, with Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis claiming that not a single paper was burnt, while NCP(SP) MP Supriya Sule questioned the ‘delay’ in dousing the fire.
“I have spoken to ED officials. Each and every paper in ED (office) is safe. There is mirror imaging (for the papers) and storage,” Fadnavis told reporters.
“No case (ongoing investigation) has been affected due to the fire,” Fadnavis said.
Related Posts:
Talking to reporters, Sule said, “Was there no fire audit of such an important building? Was there a backup of the files there? The world has gone digital. There must have be a backup of the files burnt.”
If there was no backup, it is shocking, Sule said.
Sule termed the fire at the ED office as a serious issue and questioned the time it had taken for the fire department to put out the blaze.
A massive fire broke out at the central agency’s office in south Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday. While no one was hurt in the incident, officials said documents and equipment may have been gutted or damaged in the blaze that was put out after a sustained operation of 12 hours.
Sule said, “The fire at the ED office is a serious issue. The area is not crowded. Where there is no parking or crowding, what time did the fire engine reach the scene? The fire should have been doused in 10 to 15 minutes.”
She questioned fire safety norms in the building and whether a fire audit had been conducted at the structure.
Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal claimed the agency burnt its own office. He did not add anything to support the claim.
“The ED was misused to ensure political defections. After this fire, now they are free to claim that there is no evidence against those persons,” Sapkal said. (PTI)
