Lucknow: Case registered against six. Four arrested. The same number of officials from the Lucknow Development Authority, Fire and Electricity departments suspended. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed.
A day after a massive fire claimed 15 lives in the Uttar Pradesh capital, swift action had followed but questions continue to smoulder like embers. It was late on Monday itself that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath suspended four officials over the Aliganj area fire. At the same time, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested four people, including the building owner, in connection with the Aliganj incident.
The actions came within hours of the completion of the rescue operation. The accused have been identified as Ramkrishna Upadhyay, Virendra Prasad Shukla, and Tushak Krishna Jaiswal. A fourth accused is yet to be identified, and further legal proceedings are underway. The police are yet to reveal the identity of the owner of the property.
On the other hand, four individuals were suspended with immediate effect following the CM’s directives: Gaurav Kumar, Executive Engineer (collection); Kamlendra Kumar Singh, FSSO (fire department); Anil Kumar, Assistant Engineer; and Pramod Pandey, Junior Engineer at Lucknow Development Authority. State government sources said no senior official has been moved against yet.
Based in Aliganj area of Lucknow, the multistoried building housed a pet shop on ground floor, while the upper floor was being used as a gaming zone and animation training institute where trainees worked on gaming and software-related activities.
The tragedy unfolded as students who had come to learn animation during their summer vacation found themselves trapped inside the building after the fire broke out.
Preliminary findings suggest the fire may have originated in the building’s air conditioning duct, while the resulting smoke caused suffocation due to the lack of a proper exit route, Uttar Pradesh Urban Development and Energy Minister A.K.Sharma claimed after reviewing the spot.
He added that possible violations of building safety norms would be investigated. However, apart from Sharma, no other senior official has publicly commented on the cause of the incident, leaving several questions unanswered.
Virendra Kumar, a local resident who was present at the scene, said during the incident cries for help could be heard from inside the building as rescue teams searched for survivors. He alleged that several multi-storey commercial buildings in the residential area like Aliganj operate without adequate fire safety measures, and questioned why the authorities had allowed such violations to continue.
Sukhmani was among those who lost their lives in the incident. His friend Yash said that Sukhmani had been working at a 3D animation office for the past four years. Around 40 people worked in the office, and the main entrance operated through a thumb-impression access system, he said.
After the fire spread, the gate reportedly remained automatically locked, causing a delay in opening it. This delay is believed to have worsened the tragedy. Questions are also being raised over the absence of an emergency exit on the floor.
Speaking to the media, the mother of Aditya Srivastava, who died in the incident, said, “When preparations were being made for the chief minister’s visit, the administration became very active. If the same level of vigilance had been maintained earlier, perhaps many of these young lives could have been saved. My son worked at an animation studio. He was only 25 years old. Had a little more care been taken, my son would still be alive today. My entire world has been shattered.”
Meanwhile, officials said the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation. The police are also reconstructing the sequence of events in the critical minutes after the blaze erupted.
On the other hand, CM Yogi Adityanath, who visited the incident site, has announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh each for the family of those killed and Rs 50,000 each to those injured. He has also constituted the two-member SIT to probe the fire tragedy.
Following the incident, the Lucknow administration released a list of the deceased. Those who lost their lives in the tragedy were identified as Sagar, Anamika, Sanyam, Anuchha, Sukhmani, Aditya Srivastava, Jyoti, Bhavishya, Nilesh, Abdul Rahman, Suraj Bhah, Bhahjan, Jaynil Chakravarti, Mohammad Ammar and Sumalya. The victims were reportedly between 20 and 25 years of age.
The injured have been identified as Jayant, Lovepreet, Mohammad Asif, Bhuvan Srivastava, Pankaj, Shailendra, Abhishek and Pankaj Joshi.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)