Delhi fire: Hotel owner was arrested last year in fake passport case linked to Bangladeshi nationals
Lavkesh Bajaj, the 60-year-old owner of Flourish Stays B&B in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar, where 21 people died in a fire Wednesday morning, was first arrested by the Delhi Police last year in a fake passport case involving Bangladeshi nationals in central Delhi.
Bajaj was arrested on Wednesday evening by a team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ritu Raj. On Thursday, the South District police sought his custody before a Delhi court to ascertain and verify the details of all workers, employees and others engaged in the operation of Flourish Stays, and to trace and apprehend Jay Mishra, the accountant of the establishment, and Rakesh, the manager of the hotel.
A senior police officer said Bajaj had been arrested last year after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered at Paharganj police station. “The case was registered in January, and he was arrested months later after police found his connivance during the investigation. He was sent to Tihar Jail and came out on bail after 15 days,” the officer said, adding that the matter is still sub judice.
Sharing details of the case, an officer said a Bangladeshi national was allegedly found living in central Delhi’s Paharganj area on January 29, 2025, using forged Indian identity documents, including Aadhaar cards and an Indian passport, according to the FIR registered at Paharganj police station.
The FIR states that on January 29, the police visited a house after receiving information that a Bangladeshi family was staying there on forged documents. At the premises, police found two women and a minor boy. They failed to produce valid identity documents and, during a search of the house, the police allegedly recovered two Bangladeshi passports, an Indian passport, Aadhaar cards, and several bank-related documents.
The police alleged that the photographs on the three passports appeared to be of the same woman. They also found that Aadhaar cards recovered from the premises carried different names and addresses but appeared to relate to the same person.
Bajaj was arrested in this case on charges of fraud and cheating.
