Restaurant owner denies knowing people were living in adjacent suites condemned

The co-owner of Oh! Calcutta restaurant testified Tuesday he was aware a wooden door had been placed on the basement floor as a makeshift bridge so staff could walk across raw sewage about 15 to 20 centimetres deep from a sewer backup.

Ehsan Ali, however, said he was unaware anybody was still living in the basement when public health inspector Daria Romanish ordered the restaurant to be closed down and declared the basement suite unfit for human inhabitation on March 21, 2011.

Ali said he found out people were living illegally in the basement a week or 10 days prior to Romanish’s inspection and told them to leave. He said he called police on March 21, the same day as the sewage backup was discovered by health officials.

Romanish found evidence of three people living in the basement.

There were three separate sleeping areas with beds, a large-screen television, clothing, personal items such as toothbrushes and toothpaste and photos, among other things.

As well, restaurant items standing in the sewage could be seen in photos entered as exhibits by prosecutor Rob O’Neill.

There were also plastic bottles floating in the sewage that could be seen in the pictures.

Ali and co-owner Salauddin Choudhury each face 58 charges under the Public Health Act relating to the restaurant, the basement and two illegal suites in the upstairs of the building at 507 17th Ave. S.W.

Choudhury failed to show up for the first two days of trial and was arrested Tuesday, spending the night in custody, and he has not participated in this trial.

Ali said he also was unaware that several people were still living in the two upstairs suites at the time of the March 21 inspection, long after it had been deemed unfit for human inhabitation.

Even if he was aware, he said, he was not responsible for them as he had relinquished the lease on the upstairs.

However, O’Neill told provincial court Judge Heather Lamoureux in his final argument that Ali should be convicted as he still had control and was responsible for maintenance at that time.

O’Neill cited numerous health and safety infractions in the upstairs suites, including uncovered plug-ins and missing or non-functioning smoke alarms.

As well, he said an outside staircase to the upstairs had rotting boards with grass, plants and weeds growing between steps, and no lights for the stairwell or at the landing area, creating a highly dangerous situation.

Ceiling tiles were buckling and had fallen because of the water damage, mould had eaten through the ceiling and the kitchen ceiling had caved in and fallen from the water damage. There was also mould on the walls in the pantry.

O’Neill also noted the fact that, although there were windows in the bedrooms, none of them complied with minimum size requirements for egress, in case of fire or other emergency situations.

He insisted the owners had allowed the upstairs suites to be reoccupied in the face of the inspector’s order, without any of the repairs being done as required.

O’Neill requested that Choudhury’s trial begin next Monday, as two weeks were set aside for the entire case and Ali’s trial is expected to be concluded by the end of this week.