NEW DELHI: Delhi Police apprehended four people, including a minor girl, in connection with a fire at a residential building in southeast Delhi’s Tughlakabad Extension that claimed three lives, officials said on Sunday.
According to the police, a fire broke out in a building on Friday at 2.24 am, engulfing the structure from the ground floor to the fifth floor. Eight people were injured and shifted to AIIMS Trauma Centre and Safdarjung Hospital. Among them, Pankaj, his grandmother Sushila Devi, and his sister Sonia Kumari succumbed to their injuries.
On the basis of CCTV footage in which a woman is seen entering the premises shortly before the fire broke out, the case was found to be a deliberate act of arson, DCP (southeast) Hemant Tiwari said.
A 17-year-old girl was later apprehended. She allegedly disclosed that a 27-year-old Sarita, a resident of Govindpuri, had provided petrol and a matchbox to set ablaze the scooty of one Deepak, a resident of the fifth floor of the building, over a monetary dispute, the DCP said.
Sarita in turn revealed that the conspiracy was hatched at the instance of one Niranjan (33) and his brother Rajkumar (27), residents of Navjeevan Camp, to avenge a personal dispute, Tiwari stated.
Additional sections 61 (Criminal Conspiracy), 105 (Culpable Homicide), 110 (Attempt to Culpable Homicide), and 331(4) (Lurking House-Trespass by Night) of the BNS were added, and the minor girl along with all three accused have been apprehended.