Three days after a devastating fire tore through a boutique hotel in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar, the Delhi Police have arrested the establishment’s head cook, Keshav Negi. The fast-moving blaze, which broke out on Wednesday morning at the Flourish Inn hotel, resulted in the deaths of 21 guests—including nine Indian nationals and 12 foreign tourists—making it the deadliest fire incident in the national capital since 2022.
The arrest follows the previous apprehension of the hotel’s owner, Lavkesh Bajaj. Investigators have also detained several other staff members and property associates for intense questioning as they reconstruct the timeline of the disaster.
How a Kitchen Accident Became a Fatal Trap
Initial statements from Negi immediately after the incident suggested a sudden mechanical failure. The cook recounted that the moment he turned on a commercial electric stove in the ground-floor kitchen, it suffered a catastrophic explosion, instantly igniting a massive fire. Panicked by the rapidly expanding flames and thick smoke, Negi pulled the hotel’s main electrical circuit breaker before fleeing the building to save his life.
However, forensic and police investigations have revealed that this specific act directly triggered the massive loss of life inside the upper floors:
By completely cutting off the electrical grid, Negi inadvertently cut off the power needed to operate the hotel’s sensor-driven main doors and digital room locks. The structural design of the five-floor, 22-room building featured permanently sealed windows and only a single, narrow entry and exit point. When the power died, the automated doors locked down automatically, sealing the guests inside an inescapable furnace. Among the casualties, a husband and wife were found suffocated to death inside their room’s bathroom after the electronic door frame warped and locked under the intense heat.
Widespread Safety Violations Under Investigation
The tragedy has once again trained a spotlight on severe commercial building code violations across Delhi’s crowded urban pockets. Investigators noted that the structure was operating under extreme spatial constraints, with a fully functioning restaurant on the ground floor and guest accommodations packed into the basement and upper tiers.
Local authorities are currently auditing how the hotel secured its safety clearances despite having zero emergency fire exits, no ventilation pathways, and an electronic locking infrastructure that lacked an independent, failsafe backup power supply. A dozen other injured victims remain hospitalized in critical condition as the police gather further testimony.
