Tokyo, Aug. 26 (ANI): Jin Sato, the mayor of Minamisanriku in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, is facing a police probe into whether he is responsible for the death of 41 town officials, who were in the crisis management building, when it was engulfed by the tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Relatives of the officials, who died in the tsunami, said that Jin Sato should be charged with professional negligence. Sato failed to send the officials to higher ground.
The tsunami from the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake claimed the lives of 41 officials, who were working in Minamisanriku's three-floor disaster-prevention headquarters.
The relatives said they could not leave the building as Jin Sato was present.
According to the Japan Times, Sato and nine others managed to survive by clinging to antennas on the roof of the inundated building.
The relatives have been pursuing a negligence complaint against Sato since March, and the police accepted it on Monday, the report said.
According to the police, the relatives blame Sato for using a building on low land near the harbour that was likely to be in the path of tsunami for his disaster-prevention office, the report added.
According to the report, some of the relatives have formed a victims' group and asked Sato in an open letter to apologize for what happened.
Jin Sato, however, responded by saying that the size of the tsunami was beyond belief and that his decisions were not in error, the report added. (ANI)
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