English
English
English
The tragedy has sparked outrage and renewed scrutiny over the enforcement of fire safety norms in the city’s crowded neighbourhoods. Read further on Dynamite News
Visual from the spot
Kolkata: Two days after a devastating fire claimed 14 lives in the densely packed Burrabazar area of central Kolkata in West Bengal, police arrested the owner and manager of Rituraj Hotel on Thursday morning.
The tragedy has sparked outrage and renewed scrutiny over the enforcement of fire safety norms in the city’s crowded neighbourhoods.
Akash Chawla, the hotel’s owner, and Gaurav Kapoor, its manager, were taken into custody after police filed a case under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. These include Section 105, which pertains to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, along with multiple provisions of the West Bengal Fire Services Act.
The blaze broke out around 8:10 p.m. on Tuesday in the six-storey budget hotel, which was accommodating 88 guests in 42 rooms at the time.
Police sources said one person died after attempting to jump from the rooftop in a desperate bid to escape the blaze, while the remaining 13 victims, including two children, succumbed to suffocation caused by the heavy smoke.
Authorities confirmed that 12 of the 14 victims have been identified and their bodies handed over to families following post-mortem examinations. Efforts are on to identify the remaining two.
Investigations have revealed that the hotel had become a ticking time bomb, operating in a flagrant violation of almost every fundamental fire safety regulation.
Officials stated that none of the victims suffered burns — each death was attributed to suffocation, a consequence of smoke inhalation exacerbated by blocked escape routes and failed ventilation.
Further investigation uncovered that the hotel’s fire safety No Objection Certificate (NOC), last issued in 2022, had not been renewed. The building’s sole entry and exit point — a narrow gate just eight feet wide — created a bottleneck during evacuation, leading to panic and chaos.
“This is a very unfortunate incident and we will check every aspect of the case. Investigations are on and I cannot divulge details at this stage. The Chief Minister is personally monitoring the case and all the perpetrators will be booked,” Minister of State for Fire and Emergency Services Sujit Basu said.
However, senior officials of Kolkata Municipal Corporation said that an illegal construction was going on at the first floor of the hotel, where a dance bar was being built without municipal clearance.
“This unauthorised work obstructed the building’s secondary staircase and sealed off several windows, effectively blocking potential escape routes and cutting off ventilation,” the official said.
“There was a shutter across the second staircase that was down at the time of the fire, which left only one narrow passage for escape,” the official added, pointing out that the obstruction played a significant role in the fatalities.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the fire department have announced parallel probes into the incident. Meanwhile, police continue their investigation as public anger mounts over the preventable tragedy.
