BHOPAL: Just a day after a pre-dawn blaze at a triple-storey building in Indore’s Brijeshwari Annex Enclave, charred to death eight persons, including two children, the eldest son of the business family, Saurabh Pugalia rejected the police-administration’s claims about the killer blaze having been possibly caused by electric short-circuit during an electric vehicle’s charging.
The rejection of the police-administration’s claims by Pugalia family’s eldest son Saurabh, happened when the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Dr Mohan Yadav, met with the surviving members of the bereaved family and paid tributes to the deceased in Indore on Thursday.
“It’s being said that that fire was triggered during electric charging of the EV (car). How can such a claim be made, when the charger of the vehicle was not at all connected to the charging point. If you watch the videos of the incident on social media, it’s clear that the sparks/blasts happened on the electric pole located close to the EV (car). Those flashes of fire from the pole subsequently engulfed the vehicle. We daily electrically charged the EV, but didn’t charge the vehicle on Tuesday-Wednesday night, so how can the fire have been triggered due to the short circuit during EV charging,” claimed Saurabh Pugalia, the eldest of the three sons of businessman Manoj Pugalia.
Importantly, just a few hours after the killer blaze claimed eight lives of members of Saurabh and maternal uncle’s family, the administration and police higher-ups, including police commissioner Santosh Singh and district collector Shivam Verma, based on circumstantial evidence, had said that primary probe strongly suggested that the fire was triggered due to electric short-circuit during the charging of EV. Both the officials, based on the primary probe, had said that the fire seemed to have emanated from the charging point.
The collector had added on Wednesday that experts from IIT-Indore will be roped in to develop EV-related SOPs.
Saurabh who survived the blaze timely along with mother and two brothers with the help of neighbours, however, lost father Manoj Pugalia and pregnant wife Simran, besides maternal uncle Vijay Sethia, aunt, their nephew, daughter and two maternal grandchildren (all six had come there from Kishanganj-Bihar for cancer treatment of Sethia).
Eldest among the three sons of Late Manoj Pugalia, Saurabh also alleged that the fire brigade personnel arrived at the spot after inordinate delay.
“The cops who were the first to reach the spot, should’ve first cut the electric supply and the gas pipeline supply. Maybe my family members and relatives died due to electrocution. I myself got the gas pipeline supply cut to ensure that the fire didn’t spread due to it across the colony,” Saurabh alleged.
With Saurabh claiming that it was his efforts that led to the stopping of piped gas supply in the colony in the wake of the fire, it remains a mystery why 10-12 commercial and domestic cylinders were kept inside his triple-storied house and that too when the authorities in the state have been directed to ensure no stocking commercial/domestic LPG cylinders amid the LPG cylinders crisis.
The state’s CM Dr Mohan Yadav who visited the Jain Shwetambar Terapanthi Sabhagrah at Zanjeerwala Square in Indore on Thursday and paid tribute to the deceased, met with surviving members of the bereaved family. He gathered detailed information about the incident from the family members and assured them of all possible assistance.
Yadav stated that a comprehensive and systematic investigation into every aspect of the accident will be conducted by experts. He assured that the state government will take necessary steps to prevent such incidents from recurring. He added that immediately upon receiving information about the tragic incident, state’s additional chief secretary Anupam Rajan and Special DG of police, Adarsh Katiyar were sent to inspect the site.