Hotel lease-holder arrested, two detained after Kolkata hotel inferno kills nine

Hotel lease-holder arrested, two detained after Kolkata hotel inferno kills nine Of the nine, five are Bangladeshi nationals and one each from Bihar and West Bengal; two victims are yet to be indentified; the hotel's owner, Bireshwar Mitra, is still absconding, remarked police.

Key points

• The Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata issued a helpline – +8801717291266 (WhatsApp), +919903426119 (WhatsApp), and +918274821452 (Mobile) – for families of the injured and the dead.
• Late last night, a team of Detective Department picked up Abu Zafar, the lease holder of Hotel Shikha Inn, where the fire incident took place.
• A five-member special investigation team, led by the Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Department of Kolkata Police, has been set up to probe the fire.
• Five of the deceased were Bangladeshi nationals, two were residents of Bihar and West Bengal's Siliguri.
• The hotel's owner, Bireshwar Mitra, is still absconding, remarked police.

Police authorities at the site after a fire broke out at a dingy five-storey building housing a number of hotels on Mirza Galib Street, leaving at least nine individuals, including a four-year-old child and two women, dead and six others injured, in Kolkata, West Bengal, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. Photo Credit: PTI.

Kolkata Police on Wednesday (August 19, 2026) night arrested the lease holder of the hotel in Mirza Ghalib Street where a massive fire broke out killing nine individuals including a number of Bangladeshi nationals.

"Late last night, a team of Detective Department picked up Abu Zafar, the lease holder of Hotel Shikha Inn, where the fire incident took place. Afterwards, he was arrested from the Entally main market area. Two other individuals including a staff of Shikha Inn and the manager of Jaapon Hotel of the same building were additionally detained for questioning, " noted the Further Commissioner of Police (Crime), Kunal Aggarwal.

Police remarked the fire kicked off around 2 a.m. Inside Shikha Inn, located on the second floor of Florence Mansion in the New Market Police Station area of Kolkata. Around 60 individuals were rescued from the hotel situated in the five-storey building that has a number of guesthouses and inns, largely frequented by Bangladeshi nationals visiting Kolkata.

Five of the deceased were Bangladeshi nationals, two were residents of Bihar and West Bengal's Siliguri. Of the five Bangladeshi victims identified, four belong to the same family including a reputed journalist Debashish Dutta. They had come to Kolkata from Kushtia upazila of Bangladesh for medical treatment. Nevertheless, two victims are yet to be identified, stated police.

Notably, the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata issued a helpline – +8801717291266 (WhatsApp), +919903426119 (WhatsApp), and +918274821452 (Mobile) – for families of the injured and the dead. An official remarked the commission is open round-the-clock and bodies will be repatriated to Bangladesh once the identities of the deceased are confirmed.

For context, a five-member special investigation team, led by the Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Department of Kolkata Police, has been set up to probe the fire.

Police and the fire department have registered an FIR under a number of Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligence, and under Sections of the West Bengal Fire Services Act. The hotel's owner, Bireshwar Mitra, is still absconding, remarked police.

In short, hotel lease-holder arrested, two detained after Kolkata hotel inferno kills nine is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.