MOSCOW, September 14 (RAPSI) – The Investigative Committee of Russia has filed a motion demanding to place a new defendant in the case over blaze in Kemerovo’s Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall that left 60 people dead in detention, RAPSI has learnt in the city’s Central District Court.
Reportedly, a former employee of the regional directorate of the State Construction Supervision and Inspection Service Svetlana Shengerei could intentionally conceal information on violations in the mall.
Earlier, investigation was completed into seven defendants in the case, Yulia Bogdanova, CEO of the Kemerovsky Confectionary Combine, a company owning the mall, technical director of the mall’s owner company Georgy Sobolev, the mall’s manager Nadezhda Suddenok, a guard who allegedly turned off the emergency notification system when he received a fire signal Sergey Antyushin, CEO of the company System Integrator that developed the fire safety system Igor Polozinenko; an employee of the company, who personally installed the fire alarm Alexander Nikitin and fire team commander Sergey Genin.
Depending on their role they are charged with violation of fire safety regulation, provision of services that don’t meet safety requirements and negligence.
As of today, in total, there are twelve defendants in the case, eleven of them are in detention.
Moreover, on March 28, an arrest warrant was issued in absentia for Ukrainian national Nikita Kuvikov known as pranker Yevgeny Volnov, who allegedly disinformed people of the death toll in the blaze. He was charged with inciting hatred and enmity.
According to investigation, the pranker called medical settings and government agencies on the phone and distributed false information on the death toll in the accident in order to destabilize the situation. Reportedly, he said that about 300 people were killed by fire.
The fire occurred in the mall on March 25. According to investigators, 60 people including dozens of children were killed by fire. Initially it was reported that 64 people died.
