The Cubbon Park police on Saturday arrested the owner and manager of Bengaluru’s #BEiR on charges of negligence causing death. The owner Abhishek Kulkarni was arrested after two customers fell from a window of his building late on Friday night and died.
According to the Cubbon Park Police, the victims – Pavan Attavar (36) was a marketing manager with a media company and Veda Yadav (28) was a techie. Pavan and Veda had visited #BEiR on Friday night and were leaving the premises, located on the third floor of the building.
“The woman lost balance first and then Pavan tried to help her and he too fell along with her. The window frame, which was loose, came off. Since there was nothing to break her fall, she lost balance and fell out. Pavan tried to save her and he fell too,” the Cubbon Park Police said.
Veda died instantly, while Pavan succumbed to a head injury at Bowring Hospital on Friday night. The Cubbon Park Police said that after preliminary probe, they ruled out suicide.
“Abhishek Kulkarni was arrested and he is being questioned. The building owner of Prestige RR has also been booked. They have not followed safety norms of the building bye-laws. The windows were not sturdy enough. The area near the staircase had not lighting. It is the responsibility of pub owners and building owners to ensure that corridors are lit properly. Without light, obviously patrons who are inebriated will find it difficult to navigate the stairs,” the Cubbon Park Police added.
Rumours had been rife that the two were exiting the pub in a hurry fearing an impending police raid as Police Commissioner Alok Kumar was conducting regular checks on the night of the incident. However, the Cubbon Park Police ruled out such rumours and said that the CCTV footage shows that the two friends were just walking down a dimly-lit staircase.
Speaking to TNM, Pramod Rao, a friend of Pavan, who was at #BEiR said that they had gone to the pub as it was Friday night. “There were no raids or anything. It was almost 11.30 and they decided to leave. It was an unfortunate incident,” he added.