KOLKATA: A mother and her two sons died after a fire broke out around midnight in the room they were sleeping in at Maheshtala on Saturday. Cops are probing the cause of fire and whether any foul play was involved in it.
Two fire tenders doused the flames in over two hours. The victims — Soma Mondal (40) and her sons Saheb (12) and Rahul (10) — were declared dead at Vidyasagar Hospital. Soma’s husband Probhas, a driver, was arrested on charges of murder.
Probhas, who lost his job due to the pandemic, had set up a vegetable shop in Akra’s Mondalpara, and slept there at night due to lack of space in their house. He claimed, on Saturday too he was sleeping in his shop.
Abhijit Banerjee, superintendent of police, Diamond Harbour, said, “A complaint of torture was earlier lodged by Gautam Das, brother of the deceased, against Probhas.” Some locals claimed that the door of the house was locked from outside when the fire was spotted.
“Fire tenders took time to douse the flames as the house is located in a narrow lane,” said local councillor Taher Molla.
