Five men charred to death in Uruli Devachi

The deceased were identified as Rakesh Sukhdevji Riyad, 22; Rakesh Bugaram Meghwal, 20; Dharmaram Sukharam Badiyasar, 25; Suraj Paruji Sharma, 25 and Dheeraj Omprakash Chandak, 25.

Five men were charred to death in a saree shop in Uruli Devachi on Thursday morning. The deceased were identified as Rakesh Sukhdevji Riyad, 22; Rakesh Bugaram Meghwal, 20; Dharmaram Sukharam Badiyasar, 25; Suraj Paruji Sharma, 25 and Dheeraj Omprakash Chandak, 25.

Five men were charred to death in a saree shop in Uruli Devachi on Thursday morning.

While Chandak is a native of Latur region in Maharashtra, all the others were from Rajasthan. Their bodies were sent to the Sassoon General Hospital for post-mortem.

The owner of the property has been identified as Sushil Nandkumar Bajaj, a native of Gujarat who had rented the property to the saree shop owner whose name is yet to be confirmed.

The manager of the shop has been identified as Suresh Jakhar, who lived near the shop.

“They were sleeping inside the shop and the owner had locked the shop from outside, as he does everyday. One of them had called the manager (Jakhar) in the early morning hours to open the lock as he had realised that a fire had broken out. We are yet to find out who had called. We are suspecting that the rest were asleep that time,” said senior police inspector Suraj Bandgar of Loni Kalbhor police station who rushed to the spot along with other policemen.

By the time the manager called the fire brigade and the rescue team could reach the spot, the fire had spread further and the five had suffocated, the police said. The incident is being recorded at Loni Kalbhor police station under the Pune rural police jurisdiction.

“It was two-storied 7,000 square feet wide RCC (reinforced cement concrete) structure. The manager learnt about the fire and opened the two shutters of the shop while we were reaching there. “However, the smoke and blazing fire made it impossible to get through. We went to the back of the shop, called an earthmoving equipment to break down the back wall and entered the shop. “Four men were inside a corner office on first floor while the fifth one was at the entrance of the first floor. They were all severely injured by the time we pulled them out,” said fire officer Dattatray Nagalkar of central fire station of Pune fire brigade. The fire brigade received the call about the fire at 4am. Four fire brigade units and two tankers rushed to the spot. At least 25 to 30 firemen from Hadapsar, Kondhwa Budrukh, Naidu and Katraj fire stations were involved in the operation. Along with Jakhar and Bajaj, who are both residents of Uruli Devachi, Bhawarlal Hajarimal Prajapathi, a resident of Gujarat and co-owner of the shop was booked under Sections 304(2) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code at Loni Kalbhor police station late on Thursday.