The Income Tax Department on Sunday quashed reports that claimed that records and documents related to the investigation of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi were destroyed in the fire in the Mumbai office. Taking to Twitter, the department said, "News reports appearing in some sections of media alleging that records/documents relating to investigation of Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi have been destroyed in the Scindia House fire in IT Office, Mumbai are completely false & misdirected (Sic)." The fire broke out in the Income Tax office in South Mumbai on Friday, but no casualties were reported The blaze started on the third floor of the I-T office located in multi-storeyed Scindia House. "Five fire engines, four water tankers along with adequate number of fire brigade personnel were rushed to the site to douse the flames," the official said. No injuries were reported, but one person trapped on the second floor of the commercial building was rescued by firefighters, he said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said. The building, a well-known landmark in South Mumbai, also houses the office of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT). With PTI Inputs<doc-sep>A fire broke out in the Income Tax office in South on Friday , but no casualties were reported, a Fire Brigade official said. A fire broke out in Scindia House in (Photo: Kamlesh Pednekar) The blaze started on the third floor of the I-T office located in multi-storeyed Scindia House and efforts are on to douse it, he said. A fire broke out in Scindia House in (Photo: Kamlesh Pednekar) "Five fire engines, four water tankers along with adequate number of fire brigade personnel were rushed to the site to douse the flames," the official said. A fire broke out in Scindia House in Mumbai (Photo: Kamlesh Pednekar) "Our control room received information at 4.55 pm about a fire erupting on the third floor of the ground plus six-storeyed building. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said.No injuries were reported so far, but one person trapped on the second floor of the commercial building was rescued by firefighters, he said. The building, a well-known landmark in South Mumbai, also houses the office of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT).<doc-sep>A major fire broke out on Friday evening at Scindia House, Ballard Estate, which houses the income tax department’s investigation wing and debt recovery tribunal (DRT) offices. Six people were rescued from the building, while one fire fighter, Yashwant Dagdu Balsa, lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen. All seven were rushed to St George Hospital in Fort. The fire broke out around 4:50pm, and was declared as a level-4 (major) fire around 7.20pm. It was confined to the third and fourth floor of the six-storeyed building. Eight fire engines and six jumbo tankers were rushed to the spot. The fire was contained around 6:45pm, said a fire official. “We cannot say the fire is doused. Intense heat and smoke can recreate sparks inside. The building is old and congested. It was difficult to move around inside. We are investigating the cause of the fire,” said PS Rahangdale, chief fire officer. The fire brigade, which is still investigating the cause of the fire, has not yet made an official comment on the origin of the fire. The fire brigade arrived at the spot at least 30 minutes after the call, said employees that had already vacated the building. Milind Khatu, an employee of DRT, said, “If the fire brigade had arrived on time, the fire would not have increased so much.” Manishankar Tiwari, who works as a guard, said, “I was told that there is a short circuit in an income tax commissioner’s office. We rushed there and tried to douse the fire, but it had spread rapidly due to the amount of files and papers. Everyone panicked and vacated the building.” There was speculation that sensitive investigative documents – including those pertaining to Nirav Modi, fugitive Indian businessman – may have been singed in the fire as the site included the income tax investigation wing. When Hindustan Times contacted A A Shanker, director general of income tax (investigation), Mumbai, he said, “All files related to the Nirav Modi case have been sent to the Central government.” On being asked if no files were there in Mumbai, Shanker said, “That is all. I cannot comment.” Idzes Kundan, additional municipal commissioner, told HT, “The cooling operations will go on till Saturday morning, maybe even till evening. We do not know if any important income tax files have been damaged.”<doc-sep>By PTI MUMBAI: A fire broke out in the Income Tax office in South Mumbai on Friday, but no casualties were reported, a Fire Brigade official said. The blaze started on the third floor of the I-T office located in multi-storeyed Scindia House and efforts are on to douse it, he said. "Our control room received information at 4. 55 pm about a fire erupting on the third floor of the ground plus six-storeyed building. Five fire engines, four water tankers along with adequate number of fire brigade personnel were rushed to the site to douse the flames," the official said. #WATCH Latest visuals from Scindia House (Commercial) where a level-3 fire broke out inside an office. Fire fighting operations continue. No casualties reported. #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/kQOGiaj189 — ANI (@ANI) June 1, 2018 No injuries were reported so far, but one person trapped on the second floor of the commercial building was rescued by firefighters, he said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said. The building, a well-known landmark in South Mumbai, also houses the office of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT).<doc-sep>
A massive fire at the Income Tax (investigations) officer in Scindia house, Ballard Estate at 4;30 pm on Friday has suspected enveloped important files related to defaulters like Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. The fire brigade department said that dousing operation was challenging as the massive amount of files and wooden work inside the premises became fodder to fire. No casualties were reported. The fire that covered around 12000 sq feet on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the five-storied building. Six people were rescued from the building. Prabhat Rahangdale, Chief Fire Officer) "We have parked two fire engines on the spot as precautionary measures," said Deputy Fire Officer Rajendra Chaudhary, "At least 120 firemen were pushed to service for the fire-fighting operations. Many cupboards had fallen on the floors, and we opened them, we found that the papers and files inside were ablaze. It was time-consuming time to extinguish the fire. Each floor of the building is around 4000 sqft." The cause of the fire hasn’t been declared by the fire brigade, but activists smell sabotages as the offices charred contained important files pertaining to the investigation into the Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, and Mehul Choksi cases. Police said the investigations are on. "As the building housed the investigation cell of the Income Tax department, it had files and documents pertaining to cases that were being probed in Mumbai and Maharashtra," said a senior Income Tax official. "They have all been burned. We are not authorised to divulge information about the documents and the cases we are probing. It will take us time to take the stock of the damage." "We are taking statements and investigating the cause of the fire," said senior police inspector of MRA Marg police station Sukhlal Varpe, adding, "People say they saw a short circuit. We cannot comment on the intention of sabotage." Indian Express The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) which is the planning authority of Scindia House to carry structural audit before allowing the department to start working there again.