A Delhi court on Wednesday sent two men, arrested in the Karol Bagh hotel fire, to two-day police custody. The case has been transferred to the Crime Branch for further investigation.
General manager Rajender Kumar and receptionist Vikas Kumar Takkal were arrested following the hotel fire tragedy in which 17 people were killed on Tuesday.
A team of Crime Branch visited the hotel and collected some documents, including Digital Video Recorder (DVRs) to recover CCTV of the hotel.
“A team visited the hotel and collected guest register and DVRs to scan CCTV footage of the hotel. We are going through the records available to find out the sequence of the event. We will also speak to the survivors later,” said a police officer.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shilpi Jain allowed custodial interrogation of Mr. Kumar and Mr. Takkal till February 15. The court directed the police not to torture the accused during remand custody.
“In view of the facts and circumstances and considering that the crucial documents for the purpose of effective investigation are to be collected at the instance of accused persons, two-day police custody of accused persons Rajender Kumar and Vikas Kumar Takkal is hereby granted subject to medical examination of the accused after every 24 hours as per Supreme Court guidelines,” the court said.
In the remand application, it is further stated that the owners — Rakesh Goel and Sharbendu Goel — on whose names the licence is issued are absconding since the incident.
The aforesaid accused persons were managing affairs of the overall hotel management and their custodial integration is required for recovering the guest register, getting information about the guests and to inquire about the sequence of the events on that tragic night.
