Malviya Nagar hotel fire: Delhi court denies bail to cook Kesar Negi

A Delhi court on Monday denied bail to Kesar Negi, the cook who was arrested by Delhi Police in the recent Malviya Nagar hotel fire case.

Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Bhanu Pratap Singh of the Saket Courts passed the order and sent Negi to judicial custody for two weeks.

The Court also extended by two days the police custody of Lavkesh Bajaj, the owner of the establishment.

A total of 22 people, including 13 foreigners, were killed in Malviya Nagar’s Hauz Rani area last week in a fire incident at Flourish Stays B&B. Besides hotel owner Lovkesh Bajaj, cook Negi was arrested over allegations of negligence.

However, Negi in his plea before the South district court alleged that he was being made a scapegoat for systemic safety failures and statutory violations of the proprietors of the property. The plea stated he was a salaried chef at the hotel with no control over its fire-safety infrastructure.

“The rapid spread of the fire is itself attributed in the Reasons of Arrest to LPG cylinders connected by rubber pipes that melted and leaked yet the choice of such piping, the placement of the cylinders, and the absence of extinguishers, alarms, sprinklers, emergency exits and a valid fire NOC lie squarely within the exclusive domain of the hotel’s owners and management,” the petition said.

Negi’s plea also revealed that the fire had occurred because of a short circuit in the wiring, leading to melting of the pipes. He has told the Court that like any other man of prudence, he had turned off the electricity switches after realising that the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

He denied the allegations of having left the premises without warning others.

Negi, who hails from Uttarakhand, argued that he is an aged and infirm senior citizen who satisfies the triple test for grant of bail.

The plea was filed through advocates Deepak Prakash, Sriram Parakkat, Divyangna Malik and Priyamvada Solank and Harshit Sharma.

Pertinently, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami on Sunday spoke to Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta over Negi's arrest and demanded an impartial investigation into the case. Gupta assured a transparent probe into the matter.