Lucknow, Dec 3 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to the owners and manager of Levana Suites hotel here where four people were killed and many were injured in a fire on September 5 this year.
The Lucknow bench of the high court granted bail to Levana Suites owners Rahul Agrawal and Rohit Agrawal and manager Sagar Srivastava.
“There may have been some infraction of regulatory requirements to run a hotel but that would not amount that the accused persons had been negligent or they failed to take due care of their guests or they had knowledge of fire accident, which would result in death/injuries to the guests,” Justice D K Singh observed in the bail order.
Four people had died and several injured in a massive fire that broke out at the hotel in Hazratganj area of Lucknow on September 5 this year.
The FIR in the matter was lodged at Hazratganj police station. The FIR had alleged that no arrangements for fire safety, emergency escape or entrance were made in the hotel and no arrangements were there for smoke to come out and also no such safety arrangement was there to counter such exigencies.
It was also alleged in the FIR that windows of the hotel rooms were blocked with iron grills and thus, they could not be opened for the purpose of escaping by the occupants.
During the rescue operation, firemen faced immense difficulty in cutting iron grills to enter the building.
The FIR further alleged that gas cylinders were kept in the hotel premises in a very unsafe and reckless manner. It was further alleged that the owners and manager of the hotel had knowledge that such lapses and lack of arrangements would likely threaten life and safety of the people.
In the bail pleas, it was argued that the owners and manager of the hotel have been booked for the most serious offence of committing culpable homicide besides other offences but in fact, they had no knowledge that such an incident could ever occur and hence the offence cannot attract against them.
To this plea, the bench observed, “To attract the provisions of Section 304 IPC (committing culpable homicide), there has to be knowledge of an accused that his act would likely cause death.” The state counsel and the victims’ lawyers opposed the bail pleas arguing that no-objection certificates were obtained by bad means and the accused were aware that such an incident could happen on any day and hence they are not entitled for bail.
“Considering the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case and also the fact that the charge sheet has already been filed and the accused persons have been in jail since the first week of September 2022, I am of the opinion that the accused persons are entitled to be enlarged on bail,” the bench said. PTI COR SAB SMN SMN
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