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A massive fire that broke out inside a sugar mill in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut on Sunday 17th November claimed a life and spread raw panic. "One person lost his life in the fire incident at the sugar mill in Mohiuddinpur. The team seeing the operation and maintenance of this mill is coming here from Karnal. By evening we will know if maintenance work of the sugar mill can be done or not," said Meerut DM Deepak Meena soon after the news spread like wildfire. 

This brought back disturbing memories of Meerut. In the 2006 Meerut fire case, the bench of Hemant Gupta and V. Ramasubramanian, JJ has held the Organizers responsible for the incident and not the Contractor as the Contractor was only responsible for executing work as assigned to him by the Organizers. It observed, “The contractor has worked for the Organizers and not for the victims. Hence, the Organizers alone are responsible to protect the life and liberty of the victims.”

The court was dealing with the writ petition preferred by the victims of the fire tragedy which occurred on 10.4.2006, the last day of the India Brand Consumer Show organized at Victoria Park, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh by Mrinal Events and Expositions. The incident claimed the lives of 65 persons and left 161 or more with burn injuries.