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Police have arrested Bireswar Mitra, the owner of Kolkata’s Shikha Inn hotel where a fire killed nine people, including seven Bangladeshis.
Mitra was arrested from his home on Diamond Harbour Road in Behala on Saturday after allegedly remaining on the run since the blaze broke out at the New Market-area hotel late Tuesday night.
According to police sources, Mitra fled Kolkata in his car and went into hiding in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. He reportedly returned to his home in Behala on Saturday, where police arrested him. The reason for his return remains unclear.
Police had been searching for Mitra since the fire. Sources said two of his bank accounts had been frozen, and investigators suspect he may have returned because he was running short of cash. He will be questioned to determine where he stayed and whether anyone helped him evade arrest.
The fire at Shikha Inn claimed nine lives, seven of them Bangladeshi nationals. Investigators have alleged that five rooms, each with an attached bathroom, had been built within an area of only around 1,100 square feet and that fire-safety regulations were not followed.
Police also searched two other hotels reportedly owned by Mitra in Digha and Mandarmani but did not find him. Investigators learned that he had spoken to a hotel employee by phone early Wednesday before his mobile phone was switched off.
Authorities have intensified inspections following the tragedy. A joint team of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and fire department closed 11 hotels in the New Market area on Friday and another six on Saturday. Seventeen hotels were also served show-cause notices by the fire department.
Another section of Shikha Inn was located on the fifth floor of the same building and had been leased from Mitra by Umesh Singh and Jiten Singh. Police questioned the two men on Friday, along with hotel employees.
Earlier, police arrested Abu Zafar, who had leased the Shikha Inn from Mitra for a monthly rent of Rs 40,000.
