A brother and sister, who had come from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh to Calcutta to buy rakhis for an exhibition, were among those who died in Tuesday night’s fire at Rituraj Hotel.
Akriti Navalgarhia, 22, and her brother Kamal, 36, had reached Calcutta a few days ago.
“On Tuesday evening, Kamal had stepped out of the hotel, leaving Akriti behind,” said Sharad Agarwal, a relative of the Navalgarhias, outside the morgue at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday.
“Akriti called Kamal to inform him that a fire had broken out in the hotel and asked him to return. She also called their family in Prayagraj,” Sharad said.
After his sister called him, Kamal called their parents back home and told them he was heading to the hotel.
This was around 8pm, the last time the family heard from the siblings.
What happened next remains unknown. Their phones kept ringing, Sharad said.
Early on Wednesday, Kamal was traced to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and Akriti to NRS Medical College and Hospital.
A message was sent to their father, Ashoke Kumar, at their home on Clive Road in Prayagraj.
The siblings were among many visiting the city from outside Bengal who chose to stay at the hotel in the heart of the city’s central business district.
A few days back, Niraj Kumar Verma, a vegetable trader from Jagdishpur in Bihar’s Katwa, had checked into Room No. 421 of the hotel with two friends, Rajit Khemka and Sahil Agarwal.
On Tuesday night, they realised there was a fire when the room suddenly started filling up with thick smoke.
Sahil said they decided to move out of the fourth-floor room and go to the terrace.
“The corridors had turned dark since the power was snapped, and it was difficult to move about. But we somehow reached the terrace only to realise that Niraj was not among us,” Sahil said.
“It was not possible to retrace our steps and go back down looking for him through the darkness. There was chaos all around. The firefighters rescued us from the terrace. We got to know about Niraj from police in the morning,” he said.
Niraj had been traced to the morgue at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.