Karol Bagh hotel owner arrested 5 days after fire

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police have arrested the owner a Karol Bagh hotel where 17 people were recently killed in a fire that revealed several safety violations and prompted inspections at similar guest houses in the congested area, an official said on Sunday.

Hotel Arpit Palace owner Rakesh Goel was arrested late on Saturday after he returned from Qatar, four days after the major fire. The 63-year-old was sent to two days in police custody by a Delhi court on Sunday.

“We will be questioning him about the building, licences, entries made in registers and violations. Our line of questioning won’t be about the fire incident, since he wasn’t there on the day of the blaze,” said Rajesh Deo, deputy commissioner of police.

Goel is the owner of the hotel while his younger brother, Shardendu Goel, is the licencee of the five-storey hotel, said DCP Deo. “Shardendu remains on the run. He is in India and we hope to arrest him soon,” said Deo.

The fire was reported around 4.30am last Tuesday. When the fire broke out, the hotel was housing 60 guests in 35 of the 46 rooms. About a dozen staffers were also present in the hotel at the time. Out of the 17 people who died in the fire, two died after they jumped off the roof of the hotel to escape the flames.

In court, the police said on Sunday that both the Goel brothers were regularly briefed about the day-to-day functioning of the hotel and they were “very well aware of the irregularities committed”. Goel’s arrest is the third in the case after the local police arrested the hotel’s general manager and manager on the day of the fire. Two people previously arrested were also sent to two more days in police custody and they will be questioned along with Goel to ascertain who was responsible for the maintenance of electrical fittings at the hotel. This is because prima facie the fire was triggered by short-circuit, police said.

Since the day of the incident, the Delhi government has suspended the fire certificates of several hotels in Karol Bagh for lacking adequate safety mechanisms, effectively shutting them down for at least 15 days.

The police told the court that the hotel administration did not take identity proofs of eight people from Myanmar who were at the hotel when the blaze began. Three of them were killed in the fire. The crime branch earlier issued a lookout circular against Goel after determining that he was not in the country. “Rakesh was in Qatar to attend a wedding. As soon as he boarded an Indigo flight to arrive in Delhi, we alerted the immigration officials. They detained him around 7pm at the Delhi airport,” said the DCP.

Rakesh Goel was in Qatar to attend a wedding. As soon as he boarded an IndiGo flight to arrive in Delhi, we alerted the immigration officials RAJESH DEO, DCP (crime branch)