A fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday in a building at Malviya Nagar where former Delhi minister and local MLA Somnath Bharti lives.
A fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday in a building at Malviya Nagar where former Delhi minister and local MLA Somnath Bharti lives.
No casualties were reported in the incident. However, a neighbouring apartment was completely gutted and a part of Mr. Bharti’s office on the second floor of the building was also partly damaged.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader told that the possibility of a sabotage leading to the fire could not be ruled out and demanded that the matter be investigated thoroughly. He also took to Twitter sharing images of the burnt building and claiming that he himself had a narrow escape.
“I escaped death by half a minute. @CPDelhi kindly investigate d cause behind this because this has never happened b4,” he tweeted.
Mr Bharti said when the fire broke out around 12.30 a.m. he was at home. Also present were his mother, brother and the latter’s wife.
“It started from one of the lower floors and the flames made their way up engulfing my floor and touching a part of my office which is adjacent to the house on the second floor. My dog was trapped in the fire but we managed to rescue him on time,” said Mr Bharti.
On asked if any important documents were lost, he said the fire was contained before it could damage anything in his office.
A fire department official said the call was made at 1.07 a.m. and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire was put out after two hours of firefighting, he said,
No police case has been registered and officers from the South district said that prima facie it does not appear that there was any foul play.
“The fire seems to have been caused due to a short circuit in an empty flat. We took the owner of the flat, Harish Gandhi, to the spot where the fire started. He has not submitted any police complaint,” said a senior police officer.
