Mumbai fire: Seven injured in MK Chambers blaze, including 12-year-old child

The MK Chambers building (with grey facade), where a fire was reported on Saturday morning. Pic/By Special Arrangement

A fire was reported at 10.23 am on Saturday in the B wing of MK Chambers, which left seven, including a 12-year-old child, injured. All are reported to be stable and recovering at Bhabha Hospital. The site of the blaze holds a historical connection to a bloody chapter in the violent aftermath of the split between mob boss Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Rajan in 1993.

The building, now a ground-plus-seven-storey residential structure, was a ground-plus-one-storey chawl 27 years ago, and is the site where Majid Khan, a prominent real estate figure linked to syndicate money laundering, was gunned down on March 1, 1999, by hitmen from the Rajan gang, according to information from locals. At the time, the building's ground floor was reserved for commercial purposes, and hosted the office space for Khan while the first floor were residences.

It is learnt that the chawl was then owned by the Mahimi family, and Khan was carrying out multiple real estate development projects in the Bandra vicinity.

[popcorn number="1993" desc="Year blasts claimed 257 lives in Mumbai" class="Default"]

Fire safety concerns

According to another resident, "We are not sure if the building even had an occupation certificate issued immediately after its construction, or if today it follows fire safety and other procedural aspects required by the civic body." mid-day could not confirm from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) if the building's fire safety measures are in place as of 2026.

Illegal activities

A senior officer who was on the Mumbai Police force at the time said, "The Mahim-Bandra area was a playground for illegal construction. If I remember correctly, MK Realtors was a primary player, acting as a front for cleaning the syndicated money through construction. Permissions were not even required for such a thing [fire safety], so let's not even talk about permissions from the building proposals department, building and factories department, or anything else."

‘No romanticism here'

A person who has documented the era when the city was under the shadow of the underworld, said, "We have to break away from the romanticised aspects of this period. Rule of law can only succeed if we do not talk about what it was like in the 1990s, and look at today's incidents for what they are. This was a fire in a residential building that did not claim any lives, thankfully. Authorities must examine whether they had permission. If not, due action must be taken."

The assassination

A prominent resident of Bandra, who did not wish to be named, said, "Majid Khan was shot in his office on the ground floor of this chawl. We grew up in this area and have seen and heard first-person accounts of the incident. After his death, the development rights of the building premises were acquired by Khan's two sons, who went on to chair his firm, MK Realtors. That's how this seven-storey structure was constructed."

Who was Majid Khan?

Majid Khan, a prominent real estate developer in the 1990s, was the younger brother of ‘Yeda' Yakub Khan, among those accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts. The siblings allegedly played a key role in the blasts at the behest of the main accused, Tiger Memon, landing RDX in Raigad.

Timeline

March 12, 1993: D-Company executed 12 coordinated blasts across Mumbai, killing 257. Yeda Yakub and key associates fled India while family members were booked under TADA provisions.

1993-1999: Chhota Rajan broke away from Dawood Ibrahim, sparking a spate of targeted gangland assassinations across Mumbai, where D-Company proxies and financiers were murdered

March 1, 1999: Majid Khan (owner of MK Builders/MK Realtors) was shot dead in broad daylight in his office by Rajan's shooters as part of the syndicate turf war