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Prem Nagar fire: Cops probe negligence
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Police on Tuesday said they were probing whose negligence led to the blaze in a three-storey building in outer Delhi’s Prem Nagar, which killed nine occupants, including three children, and left three others injured.
A case of death by negligence and negligence with fire was registered in connection with the incident against unknown persons. The police were investigating on whom to fix responsibility as the building owner was among the dead.
Investigators said they were questioning a businessman, Vinay Katiyar, after they learnt he had taken the building’s ground floor on rent to use it as a godown for storing fabric used to manufacture garments.
A preliminary probe indicated the fire was trigged by a short-circuit in an electrical board in the godown and fabric stacked in large quantity fuelled the fire and spread it to the entire building.
Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) SD Mishra said investigators were questioning Katiyar to find if there was any negligence on his part. “We are trying to find out if any rent agreement was prepared between Katiyar and the building owner and if he was paying any rent,” Mishra said.
The nine dead people belonged to two families – five of a family lived on rent in a room on the first floor and four of the family owned the building.
The dead tenants are Uday Kant Choudhary, 33, his wife Muskan, and their three children – Anjali, 10, Adarsh, 7, and three-month-old Tulsi.
Those dead in the house owner’s family included Ram Chander Jha, 65, his wife Sudheera Devi, 58, their daughter-in-law Sanju, 36, and her mother Balmukhi Devi, 58.
The survivors are Ram Chander’s second daughter-in-law Pooja, her daughter Aradhya, three, and Sanju’s daughter Soumya, 10.
Relatives of both families are alleging foul play and accusing one of the survivors of setting the house on fire to usurp the property constructed over a 50-square yard plot.
DCP Mishra said, “We will look into the allegations if the people give it in writing. As of now we haven’t come across any foul play.”
“The relatives of the dead tenants levelled similar allegations. We will give our statement in a day or two. It was a planned murder and the police must look into our allegations,” said Suman, brother-in-law of Sanju.
