This story is from May 19, 2018

HC invokes Uphaar case to junk Hyatt MD’s plea

HC invokes Uphaar case to junk Hyatt MD’s plea
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NEW DELHI: Citing the case of the deadly Uphaar cinema blaze as one of the precedents, the Delhi high court on Friday dismissed the plea of the top management of the city’s Hyatt Regency Hotel to quash a case of criminal negligence against it in a case in which a young CEO suffered life-threatening injuries after falling off the sixth floor of the hotel.

Justice Anu Malhotra cleared the decks for prosecution of the hotel’s managing director, Shiv Jatia, and senior managers Aseem Kapoor and Karan Lal. The court directed them to appear before the trial court which had in 2015 summoned them as accused. The court said at this stage it cannot be said that the senior executives of the hotel had no liability for the 2013 incident that left Gaurav Rishi incapacitated after the fall.
Hotel wasted golden hour of treatment: HC
Rishi had fallen off an under-construction ledge connected to the five-star hotel’s sixth floor lobby on October 16, 2013. He had gone to the hotel to meet two of his friends and had stepped out to the terrace for a smoke, as per the FIR which was recorded later. Medical reports had not found Rishi to be inebriated at the time of the fall.
Justice Malhotra gave credence to the argument of additional public prosecutor Ashish Dutta that the Hotel authorities wasted the “golden hour” of treatment when for 52 minutes after the fall, Rishi lay in a pool of blood gasping for breath. The prosecution alleged that it was only after more than an hour that the management informed the police and a PCR van could show up. The trial court had in 2015 summoned the MD, GM and others taking note of a chargesheet where the police charged them for negligence and also violation of Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Product.

The police have slapped section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC. The accused were also summoned under section 4 of the COPTA Act for allegedly failing to designate a public place as a non-smoking
area. Besides the three, the trial court had in May 2015 also summoned as accused senior manager Pawan Kumar Singh, Asian Hotels (North), hotel's director of security Lt Col Deepak Khanijou and two other hotel staff PR Subramanian and Amit Ghildiyal in the case. They were summoned for the alleged offence of endangering life or personal safety of others.
Jatia, Kapoor and Lal had moved the high court in 2015 challenging the summoning order of the trial court on the grounds that there was no involvement and negligence on their part. They had claimed that they provided timely medical help to the injured and there was no delay on their part.
In its investigations the police alleged the hotel had not implemented several licensing conditions on the day of the incident and also failed to put in place emergency evacuation. The police further alleged that emergency lighting and self-luminescent markings were not provided in areas like terrace, emergency exit route or staircase and neither was a guard deployed in the area.
Also, the under-construction terrace area was made accessible to guests without any indication that the area was unsafe. If convicted for the offence, the accused can be handed down a maximum punishment of two years imprisonment. Hyatt has earlier denied negligence in court.
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