Malviya Nagar hotel fire: Arrested cook Kesar Negi moves Saket court for bail

Kesar Negi, the cook who was arrested by Delhi Police in the recent Malviya Nagar hotel fire case, has moved a petition seeking bail before a Saket court.

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 has alleged that he is being made a scapegoat for systemic safety failures and statutory violations of the proprietors of the property. The plea states 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 plea states. 

Negi’s plea also reveals 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 has denied the allegations of having left the premises without warning others.

“Applicant had neither the knowledge nor the intention to cause such unprecedented harm, he was simply a cook rendering his daily duties. Such intention or knowledge is the very gravamen of the offence of culpable homicide punishable under Section 105 read with Section 100 BNS, and in its absence the charge cannot stand,” the plea states.

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

As per the plea,

"He is no flight risk, being an elderly and rooted permanent resident of Delhi with family and dependents here; he is incapable of tampering with the evidence, the scene having already been forensically secured; and he is in no position to influence the witnesses, who are principally police officials and documentary and forensic material."

The plea has been 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.