Lucknow's Levana Hotel Fire case: 3 people including owners arrested; FIR copy accessed

A day after four people tragically died in Lucknow's Levana hotel fire, three people have been arrested including hotel owners and the general manager. Republic has accessed the FIR copy in which accused owners Rahul Agarwal, Rohit Agarwal, and GM Sagar Srivastava have been booked under sections 304 (Causing death by negligence) and 308 (attempt to Culpable Homicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the fire incident.

Levana Hotel building to be demolished after 4 deaths

In the early hours of Monday, a massive fire broke out at Hotel Levana Suites located in Hazratganj in Lucknow where four people were killed and at least 10 injured. As per Joint Commissioner of Police, Law, and Order, Piyush Mordia, "The deceased were identified as Gurnoor Singh Anand (28), Sahiba Kaur alias Jaspreet (26), Shravika Singh (30), and Aman Ghazi alias Bobby (35)."

For several hours, rescue teams inspected the premises of the Levana Suites on Madan Mohan Malviya Marg in the city's commercial centre Hazratganj to check if someone had been trapped, officials said as it took more than six hours to douse the blaze.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM KP Maurya responded to Levana Hotel Fire Incident and stated, "action will be taken as per the investigation and arrangement should be done. Security of the people living there is importanat. We will not spare anyone if found guilty"

The four deaths in the incident have now prompted authorities to issue orders for demolition of the four-storey building after following "due process". As per the orders of the Vice-chairman of the Lucknow Development Authority Indramani Tripathi, the sealing of the hotel has been directed.

Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Roshan Jacob said that on May 7, the zonal officer had sent a notice to the hotel, to which they replied on May 12, and presented the renewal (certificate) of the fire NOC (no objection certificate) from 2021 to 2024, as per PTI.

"Prima facie, despite the lack of fire escape management system, and iron grilles on the facade, how fire NOC was given is a matter of investigation. The owners did not provide any map of the building approved as a hotel to the LDA. A notice was issued by the zonal officer on May 26, and another on August 28 as no reply was given. In this regard, the hotel must be immediately sealed as per law and then be demolished," Jacob said in an order.

 (Image: PTI)