A 49-year-old contractor died after he was set on fire by a builder on Wednesday, allegedly in connection with a financial dispute, in Kanpur’s Chakeri area, police said.
DCP (East) Pramod Kumar identifed the deceased as Rajendra Pal and said he was rushed to the UHM hospital with burn injuries on 80% of his body after local residents found him lying on a road.
An FIR was registered against builder Shailendra Srivastava and his accountant AK Tiwari based on a statement Pal made to the police before he succumbed to his injuries, said Kumar. A complaint was also filed by Pal’s son Arvind, naming Srivastava and Tiwari.
The duo has been arrested, said the DCP.
According to Arvind’s complaint, Srivastava owed his father ₹18 lakh for work done on two apartments in the city. Arvind said the builder was avoiding his father from the past year and had not cleared his dues.
The complaint stated that on Wednesday, his father received a call from Tiwari, calling him to the builder’s house in Shyam Nagar area.
The victim, in his dying statement to the magistrate, said the builder came out of the house and went back in after meeting him. He returned shortly with “some liquid” in his hand that he threw on Pal and allegedly set him ablaze, the statement added. Pal said he ran out of the house onto the road.