NBTC MD says company is 'so sorry'; promises Rs 8 lakh plus 4 years' salary to every victim's family
Kuwait Fire
Kochi, Jun 15: K G Abraham, MD of Kuwait-based NBTC Group, whose workers died in the fire accident in one of its accommodations in the Gulf nation, on Saturday said the incident was unfortunate, and the company will take care of the victims' families.
Addressing the media here after three days of the tragic fire that killed 49 people, Abraham became emotional and said "we are so sorry".
"We are so sorry. I was crying in my house. I know most of them. There were people working with us for more than 27 years. What happened was really unfortunate," he said.
Abraham said that his company directors and managers are currently visiting each and every family member of the deceased and are expressing their grief.
"This was not any mistake on our part, but still we will take responsibility. They were living and working with us. They built the company. They are our family," Abraham said.
He said discussions were going on with the Embassies for the process of disbursing the compensation.
"We will soon disperse Rs eight lakh as compensation and they will also receive the company insurance amount. We are concerned about the families and will support them and provide jobs," he added.
Abraham also dismissed the allegations that the building was overcrowded.
He said the leased building had 24 apartments with three bedrooms each and there were only around 160 employees housed there.
"As per the reports there, the incident happened due to a short-circuit in the security guard's room on the ground floor. There was no gas explosion as some claimed. There was no cooking in the building," he said.
Abraham said the building was not that old and the accommodation and food for its employees were free.
He said as the deaths occurred due to an accident, the victims' families would receive an insurance amount worth four years' salary.
NBTC had earlier in a statement said it was greatly "shocked and saddened by the tragic incident" in one of its residential accommodations at Mangaf in Kuwait.
The building in Kuwait that caught fire killed 49 people on June 12. Currently, 40 people are under treatment.
Abraham, a prominent businessman from Niranam in Pathanamthitta district is a partner and managing director of the NBTC group.
According to the Central Travancore Chamber of Commerce and Industry website, NBTC is the biggest construction group in Kuwait.
It also said that Abraham is the chairman of Crowne Plaza, Kochi which is a five-star category hotel.
He is the founder and chairman of KGA Group which owns the prominent five-star property in Kochi among other establishments.
Abraham is also into movie production and recently co-produced a Malayalam survival drama 'Adujeevitham' (Goat Life) which narrates the life of an Indian migrant worker in a Gulf nation.
Established in 1977, NBTC is into engineering and construction, fabrication and machining, technical services, heavy equipment leasing, logistics, hotel, and retailing.
Apart from the company's assistance, the Kerala government had announced an amount of Rs five lakh each to the families of the deceased persons from the state.
The Central government has also announced financial assistance of Rs two lakh to the families of the deceased.
Prominent business houses have also announced financial aid to bereaved families.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
