Shikha Inn hotel owner arrested over Kolkata fire

Kolkata, Aug 23 (IANS) Bireswar Mitra, the owner of the Hotel Shikha Inn, where the fire broke out on the intervening night of August 18 and August 19, killing a total of nine people had finally been arrested by the members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police constituted to probe the incident.

Although Mitra, is the owner of the said hotel, he had recently given it on lease to another person Abu Zafar against a month payment arrangement of Rs 40,000.

Although Zafar was arrested on Wednesday afternoon only, Mitra was absconding since then.

In the last two days, the sleuths of the SIT went to Digha and Mandarmani, both in East Midnapore district, where Mitra owns two hotels. However, he was traceable there.

An insider from the city police said that on receiving information that Mitra might visit his residence at Behala in southern outskirts of Kolkata on Saturday, plain dress sleuths were deployed near the residence.

As Mitra returned home, he was arrested by the policemen and taken into custody.

Upon police questioning, Mitra had admitted that he had escaped to Dhanbad in neighbouring Jharkhand district on Wednesday morning immediately after he was informed about the fire incident.

However, the city police insider said that the investigators feel that he decided to come back to Kolkata and reach his residence risking the high possibility of getting arrested with some motive or the other.

The cops are currently questioning him to know the motive behind the incident.

According to the Kolkata city police insider, the police had imposed debit restrictions on both his bank accounts soon after he went absconding.

“There is a possibility that since his source of funds were choked, he was left with no other option to come back to his home at Behala. Some of his hotel employees are Dhanbad-based. Probably escaped there to seek assistance from them. All these will be clear after thorough interrogation,” the city police insider added.

He will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody.

Of the nine persons killed in the hotel fire, seven were Bangladeshi residents, one was from Giridih in neighbouring Jharkhand and one from Siliguri in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

Of the nine killed, six were men, two were women and one was a three-year-old child.

–IANS

src/khz