Kolkata, 1 May

The owner and the manager of the central Kolkata hotel, where a devastating fire killed 14 people, were arrested on Thursday, police said.

Akash Chawla, the owner of Rituraj Hotel, and manager Gaurav Kapoor were taken into custody in the morning, they said.

A suo motu case was registered at the Jorasanko police station under various sections of the BNS, including 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), and the West Bengal Fire Services Act against them, they added.

Police said 12 of the 14 bodies recovered from the hotel were identified and their post-mortem examinations completed.

These bodies have been handed over to their families, they said, adding that efforts were underway to ascertain the identities of the remaining two bodies.

There were 88 guests in 42 rooms of the six-storey budget hotel, located in Mechhua in the congested Burrabazar area, when the fire broke out at 8.10 pm on Tuesday.