MOSCOW, April 11 (RAPSI) – A criminal case has been opened against fire team commander Sergey Genin on suspicion of negligence over the fire in the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall in Kemerovo that left 64 people dead, the Investigative Committee’s press service reports on its Telegram account on Wednesday. 

Genin will be arrested in the nearest time, the statement reads.

According to investigators, Genin ignored information about scores of people at the cinema on the fourth floor and the nearest way to the movie hall he received from a witness of the fire. Other firemen obeyed their chief in accordance with applicable regulations. The defendant sent his subordinates to the far-away stairs and lost the time. His negligence resulted in the death of at least 37 people, the Investigative Committee said.

The fire in the mall occurred on March 25. Investigators reported that 64 persons including children were killed in the accident. A criminal case has been launched over involuntary manslaughter, violation of fire safety regulations that left more than two persons dead and provisions of services that don’t meet safety requirements.

According to the Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin, the two main versions of the tragedy are an electrical short circuit and arson.

Seven persons were charged and detained in the case. They are: Yulia Bogdanova, CEO of the Kemerovsky Confectionary Combine, a company owning the mall, Tanziliya Komkova, head of the region’s State Construction Inspection, a formal head of the mall’s owner company Georgy Sobolev; the mall’s manager Nadezhda Suddenok; 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 a guard who allegedly turned off the emergency notification system when he received a fire signal Sergey Antyushin.

Moreover, on March 28, the court issued an arrest warrant for Ukrainian national Nikita Kuvikov known as pranker Yevgeny Volnov, who allegedly disinformed people of the death toll in the blaze, in absentia. 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.