Karol Bagh fire: Man stuck in lift desperately phoned brother for help

Kunwar Dhirendra Vikram suffocated in a lift during a fire at Vishal Mega Mart, despite pleas for help to his brother, prompting allegations of negligence.

Twenty five-year-old Kunwar Dhirendra Vikram had reached out to his brother for help when he got stuck in the elevator of Vishal Mega Mart following the blaze on Friday evening, before collapsing and suffocating to death, according to the police and his family members.

Kunwar Dhirendra Vikram.

“Brother, I am stuck in the lift at Karol Bagh Mega Mart, and I am breathless, do something,” Dhirendra had written in three WhatsApp messages sent at 6.51pm on Friday to his 29-year-old brother, Virendra Vikram.

A lawyer at a court in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, Virendra was in his hometown of Sonbhadra in UP when Dhirendra had first video-called him, and then sent the WhatsApp messages.

But Virendra was helpless because he was nearly 900 kilometres away.

“I panicked after my brother’s distress call and messages and when he stopped responding to my calls, I contacted a friend and a relative and asked them to rush to the shopping complex. My friend reached there at 7.10pm, informed fire and police personnel that Dhirendra was stuck inside the elevator, and requested them to quickly rescue him,” he said.

However, the personnel ignore the cries for help, Virendra alleged .

“They said they had already checked the elevator and nobody was found inside. They were lying. Had they listened to my friend’s request, my brother would have been alive,” said Virendra, who reached Delhi on Saturday morning and returned to Sonbhadra with his brother’s body after the autopsy in the afternoon.

According to Virendra, police and fire officials found Dhirendra’s body inside the elevator around 1.30am on Friday. He was on his way to Delhi when his friend and his cousin informed him about the recovery. Before leaving Delhi with Dhirendra’s body, Virendra lodged a complaint at the Karol Bagh police station against the departmental store owner and its employees.

In the complaint, a copy of which is with HT, Virendra alleged that in a video call his brother told him that was leaving the outlet by going down in the elevator when it suddenly stopped and smoke started filling in.

“...My brother told me that he called out the mall’s (outlet’s) employees for help but nobody came to his rescue, and that they stopped the lift because of which he was suffocating…there was no panic button in the lift,” Virendra said in the complaint.

Dhirendra is survived by two siblings and his parents — his mother is a teacher in a government school.

On the allegations, a senior police officer, who asked not to be named, said, “We have registered a case of negligent conduct under sections 287 and 106(1) of BNS and all allegations and negligence will be verified through a detailed investigation. Whosoever is found guilty will be punished as per law.”