Fire in Income Tax office at Scindia House in Mumbai; IT Dept cites 'all crucial documents' are safe

Mumbai, June 2: In a major unfortunate incident, the Scindia House was seen under major flames of fire which houses the income tax department’s investigation wing and debt recovery tribunal (DRT) offices. A major fire broke out in the heritage building and the fire brigade officials said the blaze started on the third floor which houses the investigation unit of the Income Tax department.

 

Six people were rescued from the building, while one firefighter, Yashwant Dagdu Balsa, lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen. All seven were rushed to St George Hospital in Fort. An official from the fire brigade said that the fire had originated in a canteen on the third floor around 4.30 pm and eventually spread to the higher floors. Ventilation was lacking in this ancient structure, as the buildings in Ballard Estate a heritage area, made in sandstone date back to the British era.

Assistant municipal commissioner of civic ward A, Kiran Dighavkar, said that the first and second floors of the building are intact. The building also houses the offices of the Debt Recovery Tribunal.

Inquiries into several high-profile cases were being conducted at Scindia House. These include the probe into the case of diamond merchant Nirav Modi and banker Chanda Kochhar. While none of the documents pertaining to these cases has been destroyed, officials said they will have to assess if any document pertaining to any other important case has been affected.

Senior Income Tax officials said that documents and other relevant material pertaining to the case of diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, are safe as they had recently handed over these documents to their assessment wing which is situated at another location. The officials were also inquiring into a case pertaining to top banker Chanda Kochhar. Officials, however, said that there none of the “important documents” pertaining to the Kochhar case inquiry was at Scindia House.

In a major throwback, the Mantralay building has also seen a similar incident of blazing fire in the year 2012. However it was noted that important files were burnt and the government officials claimed that recreating the burnt files would be done but it hasn't managed to retrieve all the lost files till now, including that of actor Salman Khan's 2002 hit-and-run case.