New Delhi: A charred smell in the air, dangling electricity wires, eerie silence in the narrow lane and haunting memories of desperate cries for help, residents of south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar remained gripped by fear and trauma on Thursday, June 4, a day after a devastating hotel fire claimed 21 lives.
The lane where the blaze tore through the Flourish Stay Bed and Breakfast on Wednesday morning bore signs of the tragedy that unfolded hours earlier. With police barricades blocking access and investigators combing through the gutted structure, residents struggled to come to terms with what they had witnessed.
For many, sleep remained elusive.
A shopkeeper who runs a small general store barely 10 metres from the hotel said the scenes he witnessed would remain etched in his memory forever.
“Jaley hue log, building se jump karte hue log, bodies dekh kar poori raat neend nahi aayi. Choti si awaz se bhi darr lag raha tha. (Charred bodies, people jumping off the building… I couldn’t sleep all night after looking at the bodies. Even a tiny sound now scares me),” he said, his voice trembling.
Another resident, Kanhaiya, said the tragedy had traumatised not only the families who lost loved ones but also those living in the neighbourhood.
“Children are asking what happened here. My wife could not sleep throughout the night,” he said, adding that the screams and cries of trapped guests continue to ring in the ears of residents.
“Whenever we pass through this street, these memories will come back. We can never forget those cries,” he said.
The area around the hotel remained cordoned off on Thursday as teams from Delhi Police, the crime branch and forensic experts examined the site.
Residents gathered near barricades, exchanging accounts of the horrific morning while occasionally glancing towards the blackened building.
A police officer said the area had been sealed as a precautionary measure and to facilitate structural assessment and evidence collection.
Investigators are trying to reconstruct the sequence of events that led to one of the deadliest fire tragedies in the national capital in recent years. Police are questioning residents, shopkeepers, hotel employees and other witnesses as part of the probe.
Police said the hotel allegedly had permission for only six rooms but was operating around 25 rooms.
Hotel owner arrested, police hunt manager Jai Mishra
Police are searching for hotel manager Jai Mishra in connection with the fire. Hotel owner Lavkesh Bajaj was arrested the previous day.
Bajaj stated during interrogation that he had handed over the hotel’s entire management to Mishra and that all related licenses were issued in the manager’s name.
Sources said that Bajaj, who has been arrested in the case, allegedly claimed he was the sole owner of the hotel and had no business partners. He told investigators he acquired the building in 2022 and subsequently began operating it as a hotel-cum-guesthouse.
Investigators are verifying Bajaj’s assertions that he obtained the necessary permissions to operate a bed-and-breakfast establishment, tourist accommodation, health-related services, and a restaurant on the premises.
According to sources, Bajaj also told the police that he was passing by the hotel when the fire broke out on Wednesday morning but did not stop. He allegedly fled out of fear and did not return home, instead moving around various parts of the city before being tracked down by police.
Investigators are also looking into whether the hotel was operating in violation of licensing conditions. Preliminary findings suggest that the establishment had permission for only six rooms, yet it was allegedly operating around 25 rooms.
Police are also collecting documents related to three hotels allegedly owned by Bajaj as part of the wider probe into possible violations. Bajaj is likely to be produced before a court on Thursday.
As investigators piece together what went wrong, residents remain haunted by memories of a morning they say changed the neighbourhood forever.
For many in Malviya Nagar, the fire may have been extinguished, but the fear it left behind continues to smoulder.
This post was last modified on June 4, 2026 2:40 pm