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Deposition of ex-DM in Meerut fire deferred

Due to lawyers' strike in western U.P.

Meerut: The one-man judicial commission probing the April 10 Meerut fire on Tuesday deferred till August 24, the deposition of the former District Magistrate due to the lawyers' strike in western Uttar Pradesh. The commission of former Allahabad High Court Judge O.P. Garg was to hear the deposition of former DM Ram Krishan but postponed it on the request of the Forum for Protection of Human Rights in U.P. and Uttaranchal.

Advocate Raghubir Dayal Sharma of the Forum objected to the hearing on the ground that lawyers' strike was on in western U.P. after which the judge deferred it to August 24. The fire at the Brand India consumer fair at Victoria Park here on April 10 had left more than 60 people dead, and several with burn injuries were still under treatment in hospitals. The district authorities had come under severe criticism for having permitted the fair to go ahead despite inadequate fire safety measures. Krishan, who was DM and inaugurated the fair on April 6, was transferred by the Government. Now the Director of the Planning Institute in Lucknow, he dismissed media allegations that he had been avoiding the commission's sittings fearing for his life.

He said he was ready to depose whenever the commission summoned him— PTI

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