Joyneel Chakravarty, a 26-year-old animation instructor, had made a frantic phone call to his uncle when the building in Aliganj here caught fire on Monday. It turned out to be his last one.
“I am caught in fire. Please send the fire brigade soon... save me,” Joyneel had said on Saturday afternoon.
“My wife received Joyneel’s call and informed me immediately. I rushed to the spot and found the building in flames,” Joyneel’s uncle Vishwanath Sarkar told The Telegraph at King George Medical University, where he was waiting to receive his nephew’s body after post-mortem.
A lady accompanying Vishwanath said Joyneel’s friend Surajbhan Singh, 24, was also among the 17 killed in the blaze. She said Joyneel had joined the coaching centre in the building as an animation instructor a few months ago. His parents live in Madhya Pradesh’s Anuppur and are on their way to Lucknow.
The FIR registered in connection with the blaze alleged that the building was being operated as a commercial establishment without adequate fire safety arrangements, emergency exits, and measures to prevent the accumulation of smoke, the police said.
The FIR, lodged at Aliganj police station under BNS Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 125 (rash or negligent act endangering human life) and provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Fire and Emergency Services Act, names four accused persons and others.
According to the FIR, the three-storey building in Sector D of Aliganj housed a pet shop and clinic on the ground and first floors, respectively, a video gaming zone and 3D animation centre on the second floor, and an IT networking office on the third floor.
The FIR stated that the fire broke out around 2.30pm at the pet shop and the clinic, following which firefighters, SDRF, NDRF and police personnel carried out rescue operations.
The police said they had arrested pet shop operator Ram Krishna Upadhyay, 43, building owner Virendra Prasad Shukla, 62, animation centre operator Tushar Krishna Jaiswal, 31 and Suresh Kumar Sahoo.
The government has suspended Gaurav Kumar, executive engineer of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (Jankipuram); Kamlendra Kumar Singh, a fire officer of Indira Nagar; Anil Kumar, assistant engineer of Lucknow Development Authority, and junior engineer Pramod Pandey. All of them had served notices to the building owners in the past for illegal construction and violation of safety norms. However, they didn’t take further action, allegedly after being bribed.
Poor job conditions
The incident has also swivelled the spotlight on the lack of employment opportunities and poor job conditions prevalent in several northern states.
At least four youths from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal, who died in the inferno, were working as animation coaches for anything between ₹9,000 and ₹12,000 per month.
“My brother Sukhmani Singh, 23, who died in the fire, had joined the animation centre a few months ago as a 3D artist for ₹9,000 per month. He knew he was being poorly paid, but he thought he would work there for a year till he landed a better job,” Sukhmani’s elder brother Sahiban said.
Soumalya Kumari from Namkhana in South 24-Parganas had arrived in Lucknow a few months ago and joined the animation centre as an instructor. One of her friends, who was standing outside the mortuary of King George Medical University on Tuesday, said she used to earn ₹11,000 per month.
“She had responded to an advertisement on social media and agreed to work for such a paltry salary because she badly needed a job,” the friend said.
Mohammad Asif, a clerk at the coaching centre, who jumped off the building and hit an iron grille before falling to the ground, said he would have escaped unhurt from the place if there had been no pressure to record biometric exit. Asif is under treatment at the trauma centre of King George Medical University.