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Planned murder alleged by some, authorities say it is unlikely
New Delhi: Relatives of the people killed in the blaze in outer Delhi’s Prem Nagar refuse to believe the police’s and fire department’s theory that the fire was
New Delhi: Relatives of the people killed in the blaze in outer Delhi’s Prem Nagar refuse to believe the police’s and fire department’s theory that the fire was caused by a short-circuit. They insisted that it was a planned murder.
In their eyes, a 24-year-old woman rescued from the building and her husband, who had left Delhi just seven hours earlier, were behind it.
The couple in question is Pooja and Amarnath Jha, a private firm employee. The three-storey house belonged to Amarnath’s parents who died in the fire. Amarnath’s older brother, Baidhnath, died of a liver ailment in January. Baidhnath was survived by his wife, Sanju, and their 10-year-old daughter, Soumya. They too died in the fire.
On the other hand, Amarnath, his wife and daughter survived. This raised suspicion of not just Sanju’s family but those the five-member tenant family also killed in the blaze.
“How is it possible that while others died, this family escaped? This was a fire set by Pooja,” alleged Sanju’s sister, Shikha.
Shikha alleged that on Sunday, she had spoken to Sanju who told her that Pooja had been threatening to set the house on fire. Pooja wanted the family to sell the house and give her a share in the proceedings,she said.
Another motive was money. Vijay, who lost his brother Uday Kant in the fire, said, “My brother had lent ₹2 lakh to the house owner before moving in. Due to frequent quarrels in the house owner’s family, Uday was going to move out, and wanted their money back. Amarnath and Pooja could have killed them all to avoid returning the money.”
But Amarnath denied these allegations. “I just lost my parents. We had no dispute with my brother’s wife,” he said.
DCP (Rohini), SD Mishra, too , said they had not found any basis for the accusations against against the couple so far. Another investigator who questioned Amarnath and Pooja, said that the woman told them she actively tried to rescue the people inside.
“She had saved two children — her own and her niece. She said she had gone to rescue more when she too was trapped and had to be rescued,” said a police officer.
Ajay Kumar Sharma, assistant divisional fire officer, said that while he wasn’t in the position to rule out anything, the evidence in the building did not indicate that someone deliberately set the house on fire.The DCP and the ADO also denied allegations that someone had locked the room of the tenant from outside during the blaze.
