The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will probe the death of a nine-year-old child in a fire at the women’s night shelter near Baba Kharag Singh Marg on Saturday.
Taking a suo motu cognisance of the incident at the shelter, NHRC said it has asked its Director General (Investigations) to send a team to the spot where the nine-year-old, Vinita had died, an NHRC spokesperson said.
The DG has been asked to submit a report on the incident within a week, the spokesperson said.
The girl, along with 21 women and 16 children, was sleeping at the makeshift shelter when the blaze occurred. NHRC quoted media reports which claimed that the shelter was built with highly inflammable material.
“The shelter was built with highly inflammable objects and as soon as the fire started, it spread across the entire length of the NDMC ground on which the shelter was situated.The entire night shelter, a rag-tag combination of plastic, tarpaulin and torn clothes, had come on the Bangla Sahib lane only last year after NDMC shut down its only permanent night shelter in the Sarojini Nagar area. The police have registered a case of negligence,” the NHRC statement said.
