Fire at hotels: Two arrested, magisterial inquiry ordered

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered and two persons arrested by Lucknow Police today in connection with the fire incident at two hotels here which claimed five lives.

A major fire broke out at two hotels in the busy area of the city yesterday morning, killing five people and critically injuring four.

The fire broke out at a hotel in the Charbagh area near the railway station here at around 6 AM and spread to an adjacent hotel.

"We have arrested two persons -- Pankaj and Rajkumar. One of them was a manager in a hotel, while the other was a security guard on duty when the accident took place. Yesterday in the FIR, the owners, managers and guards on duty of both hotels were named," Superintendent of Police (Lucknow West) Vikas Chand Tripathi told PTI.

Pankaj was the supervisor on duty at Hotel Virat, while Rajkumar was the guard on duty at SSJ International at the time of the incident, police said.

An official of Lucknow district administration said, "The deceased have been identified as Mehar (one-and-half year-old) from Kanpur, Santosh Mane (35) from Pune, Priyansh Sharma (40) from Aligarh, Ganesh Prasad (45) from Patna and an unidentified woman."