Nearly four years after the devastating Levana Suites fire in Lucknow that claimed four lives and exposed glaring regulatory lapses, departmental inquiries launched against government officials are yet to be fully concluded. While several officials have faced penalties ranging from reduction in rank to pension cuts, action against some others remains pending.The Sept 5, 2022 fire at the upscale hotel on Madan Mohan Malviya Marg triggered one of the state’s biggest accountability exercises, leading to the suspension of 19 officials from four departments, including the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), fire services, power and excise departments. Strong action was also ordered against the hotel’s promoters and management.However, an examination of the proceedings shows that while disciplinary action has reached finality in some cases, the larger exercise remains incomplete.The sharpest focus fell on the LDA, whose role came under scrutiny because of longstanding disputes over the legality of the building. Nine LDA officials were suspended immediately after the incident, including then prescribed authority (vihit pradhikari) Mahendra Kumar Mishra, executive engineers Arun Kumar Singh and Om Prakash Mishra, assistant engineer Rakesh Mohan, and several junior engineers.Subsequent inquiries narrowed the scope of responsibility. The names of Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Arun Kumar Singh and Ram Pratap Met were excluded after investigators found no direct involvement in the alleged lapses.Of the remaining six officials under the scanner, retired junior engineer Ganeshi Dutt Singh was given a clean chit. The fate of junior engineer Jitendra Nath Dubey is yet to be decided by the housing department. The most significant penalties were imposed on former junior engineers Jaiveer Singh and Ravindra Kumar Srivastava, who were awarded the major punishment of “reduction to a lower grade” under service rules.Retired executive engineer Om Prakash Mishra and assistant engineer Rakesh Mohan faced pension-related penalties after superannuating during the course of the inquiry. Officials said deductions were ordered from their post-retirement benefits.Most of the officials facing proceedings retired over the past three years while inquiries were still underway.As investigations dragged on, the Allahabad high court intervened in 2023 and ordered reinstatement of the suspended LDA personnel. Having already undergone nearly 13 months of suspension while awaiting completion of inquiries, the officials were allowed to return to service in October 2023. The court simultaneously directed inquiry officers to expedite the proceedings.Among those who regained service benefits was PCS officer Mahendra Kumar Mishra, who served as LDA’s prescribed authority between July 2017 and Dec 2018, when ownership of the property changed hands and construction-related issues were under consideration. Suspended in September 2022, he was reinstated in Jan 2023 and later retired as additional commissioner, Jhansi division, in June 2024.The state government had entrusted the inquiry into LDA officials to Kanpur divisional commissioner K Vijayendra Pandian after initial probe by a high-level committee headed by then Lucknow police commissioner SB Shiradkar and divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob.Senior officials said shifting the probe to Kanpur was aimed at ensuring neutrality. At the time, Mahendra Kumar Mishra was serving as additional commissioner, Lucknow division, while the Lucknow divisional commissioner is also ex-officio chairman of the LDA, creating the possibility of a conflict of interest.Confirming that the probe remains confidential, Pandian told TOI: “I was asked to examine the role of six officials associated with the LDA. Nothing more can be divulged at this stage as the inquiry findings are confidential.”While developments regarding LDA officials are known, the status of inquiries against 10 officials from the fire, power and excise departments remains less clear.Those suspended included four fire department officials led by then chief fire officer Vijay Kumar Singh, three officials from the electrical safety wing of the power department, and three officials from the excise department, including then district excise officer Santosh Kumar Tiwari.The Levana tragedy occurred on the morning of Sept 5, 2022, when fire engulfed portions of the four-storey hotel. Nineteen of the hotel’s 30 rooms were occupied at the time. Four guests — Sahiba Kaur, Gurnoor Singh Anand, Amaan Ghazi and Savika Sant — died while several others suffered serious injuries and had to be rescued by firefighters.Investigators initially suspected an electrical short circuit in a control room housing servers and electronic equipment on the ground floor.The aftermath also led to criminal proceedings against the promoters of Levana Hospitality LLP and the hotel’s management. Rahul Agarwal, Rohit Agarwal and hotel manager Sagar Srivastava were arrested and later granted bail by the high court in Nov 2022. Pawan Agarwal, citing health grounds, was not taken into custody.The legal battle over the building itself also remains unresolved. In Nov 2022, the LDA issued a demolition notice to the promoters. Though the prescribed authority later rejected the builders’ appeal, the matter reached the HC, which granted interim protection while directing authorities to expedite disposal of pending appeals.
