Nearly three months after a massive fire at a bed and breakfast in south Delhi’s Hauz Rani left 23 people dead, Delhi Police on Tuesday submitted a 1,500 page charge sheet in the case to a court, said investigators aware of the matter.
Without giving details, deputy commissioner of police (south) Anant Mittal confirmed the development.
An officer asking not to be named said that the charge sheet has been filed against Lovkesh Bajaj, the owner of Flourish Stay B&B, manager and accountant Jay Mishra, and cook Keshav Negi under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 326(g) (pertaining to mischief involving fire or explosive substances causing damage), 324(5) (pertaining to mischief causing damage), 125(a) and 125(b) (acts endangering the life or personal safety of others where hurt or grievous hurt is caused), and 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The charge sheet contains the statements of 130 witnesses and their documents. The Forensic Science Laboratory report, however, is still awaited and will be filed at a later stage, the officer said.
On June 3, the fire broke out around 8.30am on the ground-floor where a full-fledged restaurant had been operating despite permission only to run a tea-and-snack outlet.
The B&B was permitted to operate only six rooms but was running 31 rooms across four storeys, a basement and the roof, with no fire exit. These violations created conditions that turned a fire into one of Delhi’s deadliest fire disasters in recent years. The incident killed 23 people, including foreign nationals, many of whom were in Delhi for medical treatment.
The over 1,500-page charge sheet, an officer said, says the building was originally a two-and-a-half-storey structure and was converted into a ground-plus-four building without permission after Bajaj purchased it in 2023. The restaurant was started on the ground floor the same year and two additional rooms were constructed on the rooftop, none of which had the requisite approvals.
In the exact sequence of events established so far, police said the fire broke out in the kitchen near an electric air fryer around 8.30am. The flames intensified after the LPG hose pipe caught fire, causing a gas leak that rapidly spread smoke through the ground, first and second floors.
Police have also mentioned that Bajaj visited the spot at the time of the incident and left within minutes and that Negi switched on the electric air fryer before attending to other work and later noticed flames near the appliance.
Witnesses told investigators that emergency calls were made between 8.15am and 8.45am, while fire tenders reached the building between 9.15am and 9.30am.
HT had reported that 20 crucial minutes were lost after the nearest fire station was unable to dispatch a fire tender because of a separate ongoing fire-control operation and a shortage of personnel.
Hemani Bhandari is a Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in New Delhi, where she reports on crime, policing, governance and social issues. With over a decade of experience in journalism, she specialises in combining on-ground reporting with evidence-based storytelling to examine the human impact of public policy, law enforcement and urban governance. Over the years, she has reported extensively on major developments in the capital, including crime investigations, civic challenges, protests, and issues affecting vulnerable communities. As a Special Correspondent, she focuses on producing exclusive investigations, enterprise stories and long-form features that go beyond daily news cycles. She has a keen interest in using public records, official data and field reporting to uncover systemic issues and present complex subjects in an accessible manner. A graduate of the Asian College of Journalism, Hemani believes in rigorous, ethical and evidence-based reporting. She is passionate about investigative journalism and continuously seeks to expand her skills in data journalism, open-source investigations and digital reporting techniques.Read More
