The death toll from a fire that broke out at an illegal bed and breakfast in Hoz Rani rose after another foreign national succumbed to his injuries, police said on Sunday. This brings the number of foreigners killed to 13.
“The foreign national died late on Saturday night. The death toll now stands at 22,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Anant Mittal said. The victim, who sustained serious injuries, was undergoing treatment at a south Delhi hospital.
A police officer, who requested to remain anonymous, said the victim was a 39-year-old Nigerian man.
A total of 49 injured guests were evacuated from the Flourish Stay B&B after a fire broke out at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Among them, 21 of them were declared dead in the hospitals to which they were transferred, while 28 are undergoing treatment. At least eight of the infected people were on ventilators. Ten policemen were also injured during search and rescue operations.
On Sunday, as the investigation into the incident continued, investigators took the 65-year-old cook, Keshav Negi, who was arrested in the case on Saturday, to the B&B facility to entertain the scene with the help of forensic experts and the crime scene investigation team, officers said.
As instructed by officials, Negi showed them where he was cooking in the kitchen on the ground floor when the fire broke out. While Negi claimed that the fire started in the kitchen, his lawyer told the court on Saturday that the cause of the fire was an electrical fault elsewhere in the building. Negi also showed officials the location on the ground floor where the reception, waiting and dining areas are located, officers said.
“The teams remained at the facility with Negi for about 35 minutes before leaving the place,” an officer said, requesting anonymity, adding that Negi was arrested from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Another officer said Negi’s questioning revealed that he was not the only employee present at the B&B, but at least five others, including manager Rupesh, also fled as the fire broke out. While Rupesh, the prime suspect in the case, was on the run since he fled the facility after the fire broke out, the other four employees were questioned.
The other main accused, Jay Mishra, who was listed as the owner of the B&B in the license issued by the Delhi government’s tourism department, remained at large as of Sunday evening. The officers said that interrogation of Mishra and Rupesh is crucial to prove violation of rules and criminality in the case, apart from fixing responsibility for the deadly tragedy.
“Teams are launching raids in Delhi, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Noida and several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal to nab Mishra and Rupesh. They have switched off their mobile phones. Mishra’s house in Rajpur Khurd near Mehrauli in Delhi was also raided, but he was not found there.”
The other four employees we interrogated claimed they fled because they panicked after seeing the fire and feared for their lives. “Nobody has gotten a clean chit yet,” said the second officer, who asked to remain anonymous.
According to the officer, local investigations indicated that Mishra was not present at the facility when the fire broke out.
But investigators want to identify him and his exact location at the time of the accident through interrogation and technical investigation. The owner of the building, Lakesh Bajaj, who was arrested on Wednesday evening, told investigators that it was Mishra who was handling all the day-to-day operations of the company on his behalf.
Negi revealed that the restaurant on the premises – Snacks and Bites – serves a full menu of cooked food items and drinks, and has a capacity of 30 people, police said.
