LUCKNOW: A journalist, identified as Rakesh Singh ‘Nirbhik’ (37) and his friend Pintu Sahu (35), suffered severe burn injuries when a fire broke down under mysterious circumstances near Rakesh’s house in Kalwari village in Balrampur district midnight on Friday.
While Pintu died on the spot, Rakesh succumbed to his injuries at Lucknow Trauma Centre on Saturday. Rakesh was associated with the Hindi language daily newspaper Rashtriya Swaroop.
Police said that Rakesh, before losing the battle of life, recorded a video statement as his dying declaration. On the basis of that, three persons -- Ravi Chaudhary, the former village head, Ram Surat, and Babu Mishra – were detained and quizzed.
Sources claimed that in the video, Rakesh had indicated the role of Ravi Chaudhary in the incident.
According to Balrampur SP Dev Ranjan Verma, the police were informed about the incident by the locals at around 12 in the night. “A police team including the SHO of Kotwali Dehat rushed to the spot only to find a cot in house completely charred and a wall broken from outside,” he said.
“While Pintu was found dead on the spot, Rakesh had been lying in a sub-conscious state and was rushed to the district hospital to be referred to KGMU Trauma centre in Lucknow. But he died during treatment,” said the SP.
The SP also said that no signs of a blast were found from the spot as a desktop was intact. Only its keyboard was disfigured due to heat, a packet of groundnuts was also found to be intact and its polythene cover had enlarged due to the heat. Other inflammables including the cooking gas cylinder in the kitchen just next to the bedroom was in a perfect state.
In the meantime, a forensic team had arrived at the spot. “The FSL team also did not recover any gunpowder signs from the room,” said the SP.
He added that prima facie it appeared from the nature of injuries caused on the two bodies that somebody set the house on fire and fled as the door and the gate were locked from inside.
“The five friends -- two deceased and three detained after the incident --are believed to have an altercation at a liquor shop with some people. We are trying to find the people and will question them too,” said the officer.
victim Rajesh’s father Munna Singh, who lives in Imliya village, said that some four-five men with a ‘gamcha’ tied around their face scaled the boundary wall of the house hurled some explosives inside the premises, and fled. On the basis of the complaint, an FIR of murder was lodged against unidentified persons.
Rakesh’s wife Vibha Singh claimed that she along with her two-daughters -- Ananya (10) and Aditi (8) -- had gone to her sister-in-law’s place when the incident took place. She alleged that cops di