Jilted lover who lit fire in MP arrested

The jilted lover who sparked inferno in a residential building in Indore in Madhya Pradesh leading to death of seven people and injuries to nine others on Saturday, has been arrested.

Sanjay alias Subham Dixit was arrested in the city on the intervening night of SaturdaySunday, Indore police commissioner Harinarayan Chari Mishra said on Sunday.

“I only wanted to torch the scooter to teach a girl, who was staying in a flat in the building, since she ditched me by deciding to marry another person. I did not know the fire would ravage the building and kill people. I was horrified to learn about the tragedy on Saturday evening”, he was quoted as saying by the police.

Police cracked the case by identifying him from the footage of a CCTV installed in the locality.

He was seen in the CCTV footage entering the premises in the wee hours of Saturday and then drawing petrol from a two-wheeler parked in the parking area in the ground floor of the threestorey residential building. He was then seen in the footage pouring the fuel on the two-wheeler.

He was later seen in the footage fiddling with the electric meter box.

The scooter caught fire due to the spark in the electric meter box which later engulfed other vehicles parked in the premises of the building.

Soon, the entire building was in flames leading to the tragedy.

According to the police, the scooter belonged to the girl with whom the accused wanted to marry. But, he was upset when her marriage was fixed elsewhere and hence he wanted to take revenge by torching her scooter.

On Sunday, Dixit faced the anger of the relatives of some of the deceased and the elder sister of the woman who had spurned his marriage proposal, at a police station. They shouted at him and demanded that he be hanged to death.