Bireswar Mitra, the owner of the Hotel Shikha Inn, where the fire broke out on the intervening night of August 18 and August 19, killing a total of nine people had finally been arrested by the members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police constituted to probe the incident.
Of the nine persons killed in the hotel fire, seven were Bangladeshi residents, one was from Jharkhand and one from Siliguri in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
Mitra was on the run since then Although Zafar was arrested on Wednesday afternoon only. An insider from the city police said that on receiving information that Mitra might visit his residence at Behala in southern outskirts of Kolkata on Saturday, plain dress sleuths were deployed near the residence. Upon police questioning, Mitra had admitted that he had escaped to Dhanbad in neighbouring Jharkhand district on Wednesday morning immediately after he was informed about the fire incident.
As Mitra returned home, he was arrested by the policemen and taken into custody.
However, the city police insider said that the investigators feel that he decided to come back to Kolkata and reach his residence risking the high possibility of getting arrested with some motive or the other.
