Detained For A Day, Widow Of Fire Victim Released

Kolkata: A day after 63-year-old Ranjit Barat died in a fire at his apartment in Maniktala here, his wife Sutapa Barat, who had been detained after the incident, was allowed to go home on Sunday after being interrogated by the police.

“She may be re-questioned after the post-mortem report arrives,” said a senior official of Maniktala police station on Sunday.

The death of Ranjit was being suspected by the police as either a suicide or an accident.

The incident took place in the wee hours of Saturday when a fire was reported in a room of an apartment in Maniktala Housing Estate. The room was locked from inside.

Firemen broke into a smoke-filled apartment in Maniktala government colony on Friday midnight to a macabre sight — a 57-year-old woman covered in soot and kerosene watching TV as her husband lay burnt to death n the next room.

There was more surprise in store. When the cops arrived, they were shocked to find police helmets and even an old wireless radio in the elderly couple’s Maruti Alto, which had ‘police’ stickers on the front and rear windshields. Suspecting that there is more to the case, Maniktala police have detained the wife, Sutapa Barat, and one of her male acquaintances.

After fire fighters doused the flames, police entered the apartment and rescued 57-year-old Sutapa from another room while Ranjit’s body was recovered in the locked room. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.