Mumbai, Sept. 6 -- After a decade-long battle for justice, the families of those who lost their lives in a 2015 fire accident in Hotel Kinara in Kurla received a compensation of Rs.50 lakh each as directed by the Bombay High Court in June this year. The incident dates back to 16th October 2015, when Hotel City Kinara in Kurla caught fire, claiming the lives of eight college students and one corporate employee. The investigation had revealed that the hotel did not have the necessary fire safety systems in place. It was also found that the hotel illegally served food in the loft area of a mezzanine floor. A fire incident report was filed after the incident, which stated a gas leak in the loft area as the reason for the fire. It further stated that the furniture and the switchboards soon caught fire, resulting in the mishap. "Party failed to produce valid permission from the competent Municipal authority for the authenticity of the loft/mezzanine floor," the report mentioned. The families of the victims claimed that the owners of the hotel were under arrest for six months, after which they were set free. In 2018, the families of victims filed a petition with the Bombay High Court. The high court held the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) responsible for the mishap for not cancelling the hotel's license as it was being operated without a no-objection certificate from the fire department. On June 10 this year, the high court observed that the fire could have been entirely prevented if the BMC had acted on the finding that the eatery had committed several breaches of fire safety norms. It held that the "deliberate inaction and negligence" on the part of civic officials in fulfilling their duties had resulted in the fire and loss of lives. The court then directed the BMC to pay a compensation of Rs.50 lakh to each of the victims within a period of 12 weeks. On Friday, the BMC paid the compensation to all the families of the victims. One of the petitioners, Rekha Thapar, mother of Akash Thapar, 19, an engineering student of Don Bosco Institute of Technology who died in the incident, said, "The compensation amount is received, but the emotional strain and the loss are unbearable. We have been living with it for the last decade, and it will stay with us."...