Police yet to classify Nadi fire deaths

Police have yet to classify the three deaths from an early morning fire in Nadi last week. The tragic incident happened early last Saturday at Navakai, about four kilometres from Nadi town, which claimed the lives of Ben Mati, in her 70s, her daughter Surya Wati, in her 50s, and Ms Wati’s de facto partner Salesh Chand, 43, also from Navakai.

“We are waiting for the post-mortem examination and National Fire Authority (NFA) reports before classifying the case,” Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said yesterday, However, Ms Naisoro confirmed that Police received a report of an alleged breach in a Domestic Violence Restraining Order (DVRO) that very night from the residence.

“While still in the process of searching for the suspect, the fire incident took place.

“We attended to the report at the residence because there were claims of the breach and advised the second victim to lock up the premises and not allow her partner in under any circumstances. The team then proceeded to search nearby for her partner.”

A Fiji Sun team visited Mr Chand’s brother Mukesh’s residence on Sunday. He confirmed that they went to the Police station and identified his late brother from a tattoo on his left hand.

“The Police told us they needed to confirm the identities of the fire victims and we were called in.”

Mr Chand said his younger brother had separated from his wife and lived with his son.

He added that his brother’s de facto partner (Surya Wati) used to come to his home.

“When he left on Friday, he left his phone here and his two vehicles are still parked here,” Mr Chand said.

“We don’t know what the situation between them, but we just heard that he was arrested the night before the incident happened.”

A neighbour and taxi driver, Nikshay Deo, who lives a stone’s throw away from the residence, said he was brought up in the neighbourhood with Surya Wati’s son, who now lives in New Zealand.

“On Friday night, I was at home as we had some visitors when we received a call from Aunty Surya around 12am. She said that ‘Salesh was in their residence’,” he said. “She again called us around 2am saying that Police had taken Salesh and they could go to sleep.”

Mr Deo said they all went to sleep and were surprised with the tragic incident few hours later.

However, Ms Naisoro said, “The claims are false he (Salesh) was never in our custody.

“Because investigations are ongoing, we are not going to speculate further,” she said.

We are waiting for the postmortem examination and National Fire Authority (NFA) reports before classifying the case. Ana Naisoro Police spokesperson