A year after gaming zone fire that left 27 dead, families of victims continue to wait for justice, Rajkot Fire Service remains rudderless

Indian Express

24-05-2025

'In the last 365 days, there has not been a single day when our family has not cried while remembering Surpalsinh.'
Aniruddhsinh Jadeja's eyes well up as he remembers his 22-year-old son. A native of Dhrol in Jamnagar district, Surpalsinh was a university student in Rajkot who had gone to the TRP gaming zone with his friends on May 25, 2024.
Surpalsinh was among the 27 people who died in the blaze that engulfed the gaming zone exactly one year ago. He was set to get married just six months later, around Diwali.
'We have not received any justice so far. Now, our only hope is the judiciary. Others can only give assurances but only someone who has lost their young son so tragically would know the pain we are going through,' says Jadeja.
Another person who lost a loved one to the tragedy is Kamlesh Kathad (17) whose 19-year-old sister Asha perished in the blaze. She was an employee at the gaming zone.
'The government gave us Rs 4 lakh as compensation but what about justice? Since day one, we have been demanding the harshest punishment for the culprits but the wait has been endless,' says Kamlesh.
The Kathads had shifted to Rajkot from their village in Junagadh's Manavadar taluka in January 2024 for better opportunities. Asha, who had completed her Class 12, wanted to pursue higher studies in Rajkot.
'As we were short of money, she decided to work at TRP zone till the time she gets admission in a college. She was drawing a salary of Rs 14,000 per month to support the family. Since childhood, she had wanted to join the Army,' says Kamlesh.
Asha's father Chandubhai, who worked as a security guard at a commercial complex 2 km from TRP zone, was the last one to see her alive.
'He reached the spot when he spotted the fire and heard blasts from the site. He saw my sister running out from the gate but soon, she ran back inside after hearing cries for help. She never came out alive,' says Kamlesh.
Located in Nana Mauva area of Rajkot, the zone was running without requisite police permissions or Fire Safety Certificate (FSC).
Investigation into the blaze found that it was caused by sparks from a welding iron, igniting inflammable materials, including diesel, stored on the premises.
Soon after the tragedy, several stakeholders were booked and 15 of them, including those from the civic body, were placed under arrest between May 26 and June 28, 2024. The then Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Anand Patel as well as Commissioner of Police, Raju Bhargava, were transferred with immediate effect.
As of May 24, 2025, while four of the accused are out on bail, the other 11 remain in judicial custody as undertrial prisoners.
The prosecution submitted documentary evidence running into almost 5,000 pages. Seven of the accused have filed discharge applications in the case but decisions on the same are yet to be passed by the court.
At his home, Ashok Modasiya, 53, fondly looks at pictures of three of his family members hanging on the wall. He lost his two daughters, Khushali (24) and Tisha (18), and son-in-law Vivek (26), to the tragedy, he tells The Indian Express.
Khushali and Vivek had got married barely three months before the incident. Tisha was a first-year BCA student.
Khushali, who lived in Gir Somnath's Veraval with her in-laws, had come to Rajkot to get the paperwork done for her marriage registration. Vivek had come to pick her up. They decided to go to the gaming zone and take Tisha along.
'That was the last time we saw all three of them. On May 28, at 6 pm, we were handed over their bodies after DNA confirmation,' says Ashokbhai.
'It will be a year tomorrow (Sunday) but we have not got any justice. The government assured us that those responsible will be identified and put behind bars with a fast-track court proceedings but we have got nothing but wait, and hope for justice,' Ashokbhai adds as his wife Amitaben looks on. 'She has been badly affected after losing both our children at such a young age. The incident has left her shaken,' says Ashokbhai.
The Indian Express reached out to Tushar M Gokani, the Special Public Prosecutor appointed by the Gujarat government in this case, who says, 'In the TRP case, I feel the state government, too, is feeling the pain and agony of the victims and therefore, it has been acting very swiftly on all legal issues. In an unprecedented manner, the Home Department has been taking written progress reports every fortnight in the case.'
He further says, 'On behalf of the state, I had filed an application seeking expeditious trial, preferably on a day-to-day basis, in November 2024. As a Special Prosecutor, I will ensure that justice to victims be served expeditiously by following the due process of law.'
A number of bodies, including that of children, were so badly charred in the fire that the victims' families had to wait at Rajkot Civil Hospital for three-four days as they had to be sent to Gandhinagar Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for DNA identification.
Fire department still reeling under aftermath
A year after the TRP Game Zone fire, while the state government has made changes to the Comprehensive Gujarat Development Control Regulations (CGDCR) to include rules to be followed by such premises, the impact of the incident on the fire department has been such that it has still not been able to recover from it.
The then Chief Fire Officer (CFO) of the Rajkot Fire and Emergency Services (RFES), Ilesh V Kher, as well as Deputy CFO Bhikha J Theba were arrested in the case on June 22, 2024. Earlier, Station Officer Rohit A Vigora was held on May 30, 2024.
Now, even as reforms were instituted in the fire services at the city and state level, with previously 'missing' posts of Divisional Officers and other ranks being sanctioned and vacancies of more than 300 firefighters being filled, its leadership remains vacant.
Six days after Kher and Theba were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Anil Maru, the then District Fire Officer in Bhuj, Kutch, who was on loan to the Gujarat State Fire Prevention Service (GSFPS) as Regional Fire Officer (RFO) of Rajkot region with six districts under it, was sent to take additional charge as CFO of Rajkot city on June 28, 2024. Within 45 days, on August 12, 2024, Maru was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in an unrelated case.
Station Officer Hardik Gadhvi, who was in-charge Deputy CFO, also resigned shortly thereafter, and another Station Officer, Amit Dave, was made in-charge CFO. However, Dave also resigned and was supposed to complete his 'notice period' at the end of December 2024.
IAS Tushar Sumera, who was appointed Rajkot Municipal Commissioner in December 2024, asked Dave to stay on till senior officers could be found to helm the fire department. Six months after he submitted his resignation, Dave has still not been relieved and remains CFO of a major city — a post that is three ranks above his.
This is because Kher and Theba, in spite of their arrests, are still only suspended from their service. This, according to rules, means the posts of CFO and Deputy CFO cannot be filled by further recruitment.
While experts have suggested bringing on board a contractual CFO or sanctioning the post of an Additional CFO to fill the leadership gap, no step has been taken in that direction. However, sources in the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) confirmed that the creation of the post of Additional CFO and imminent recruitment of a senior officer is in the works, and a proposal will be sent to the Gujarat government in the coming days.
Meanwhile, even though recruitment of other mid-level officers has begun, the process has run into legal issues due to the differences in rules between various municipal corporations and acceptable educational qualifications.
'Don't wish to be known by the TRP tragedy'
The tragedy has not only left the kin of the victims shaken but also affected people who were eyewitnesses to it.
'I don't wish to be known by the TRP tragedy. However, I cannot help it as people, even today, refer to that incident and keep asking me what happened,' says 27-year-old Mahesh Bharwad, a tea vendor near the TRP gaming zone's main gate.
He says that he was, as usual, delivering tea at various commercial complexes, when he noticed black smoke emanating from the TRP zone and people running out.
'Since I would deliver tea at the TRP gaming zone too, I was aware of the back gate near the garden. When I saw people stuck on the second floor trying to get down from the pipeline, I shouted at them and asked them to jump,' he told The Indian Express.
Mahesh said though, with the help of others, he managed to save three-four persons at the time, he could not grab one of them. 'The person fell and hurt his head but I quickly stopped the car and asked the driver to rush him to the hospital. Someone recorded this and it went viral,' says Mahesh.
He distinctly remembers one particular incident. 'After 10 days of the fire, a man came up to me and showed some photos and videos of his son, inquiring if the young man who was hurt was him. I replied in the negative.'
The man's son was supposed to get engaged in a month. 'Since the hospital authorities were not allowing anyone inside, the family was living in hope that, perhaps, their son was only injured and still unconscious. Later, the remains of his son, who was 80 kgs, were returned to the family in a small box weighing 10 kg…' Mahesh adds.
Mahesh says no matter how hard he tries, he finds it unable to forget the incident. 'Also, people keep reminding me about it. Even now when there is fire, some people joke around, asking me to rush and save someone. They do not understand the extent of that incident because they were not a witness to it,' he adds.
Another thing that reminds him of the tragedy on a daily basis is its site, now marked by a boundary wall even as the metal debris still lies inside. 'Even after a year, no one has come to pick up the charred, twisted metal remains of the structure that till last year, was filled with the laughter and smiles of happy children,' says Mahesh.