RANCHI: At least eight buses parked at a stand here were gutted in two separate incidents but there was no casualty, a police official said.
The fire broke out at the inter-state bus terminus at Khadgarha in the Lower Bazar police station area. There was no casualty as there was no one present in any of the eight buses when the fire broke out, he said.
The first fire incident occurred around 1 pm when four buses were gutted and one was partially damaged.
About a later, a fire broke out in four more buses, parked about 100 meters away from the place of the earlier incident, Khadgarha police outpost in-charge Akash Bhardwaj said.
"Four fire tenders were put into service to douse the fire, which is now completely under control now," he said.
Bhardwaj said, "The exact cause of the fire is yet to be known but there might be a conspiracy to create a disturbance. However, we can reach a conclusion only after investigation," he said.
The CCTV footage is being examined to find out the reason, he said. The president of Ranchi Bus Owners Association Krishna Mohan Singh said the two incidents were due to a criminal conspiracy.
"It is a criminal conspiracy. Two back to back two fire incidents, which gutted eight buses and damaged one, are not possible without a conspiracy," he said.
Singh alleged that there is no facility to fight any fire or any security at the Khadgarha bus stand though more than 350 buses ply to different destinations from there.
"We are scared that more such incidents might take place at night. Ranchi administration should take the incident seriously and provide security to buses," he said.