Victims of fire allege role of local goon

A day after a fire broke out at the Tank Road of Prasad Nagar area on Tuesday evening, police found that the fire broke out not because of a short circuit, instead, some unidentified people purposely set ablaze the readymade garment shops in the area, a senior police official said.

According to the police, three brothers suffered severe burn injuries while an old woman died due to the burns at the RML Hospital. The three persons have been identified as Rakesh (42), Suresh (38) and Anand (31). Doctors at the hospital said that Rakesh suffered 75 per cent burns while Suresh and Anand were discharged after being treated.

Police said that Suresh claimed that he along with his two brothers live in Paschim Vihar with their family. They have five shops at the Tank Road. They suspect that a local goon named Keshav is behind the attack. At the time of the incident, Keshav came to their shop and demanded Rs 1 lakh from them and when Suresh refused, Keshav threatened him of dire consequences and threw a container of oil at them. In a scuffle between Suresh and Keshav, Anand and Rakesh too joined them. Keshav lighted a lighter and threw it at Rakesh and managed to escape from the shop. While trying to save their brother Rakesh, Anand and Suresh suffered burn injuries in their hands. The fire which started at Suresh’s shop spread quickly and 10 shops were gutted.