7 of family charred to death in Punjab's Ludhiana

Seven members of a family, comprising five children, were burnt to death in a fire that broke out in their hut in a slum in this Punjab industrial city on Wednesday morning, police said.

Ludhiana: Seven members of a family, comprising five children, were burnt to death in a fire that broke out in their hut at Makkar Colony on Tibba Road in the industrial city area on Wednesday morning, police said. One member of the family, who was not in the hut at the time of the incident, has survived.

East Ludhiana Assistant Commissioner of Police Surinder Singh said that a team of doctors from the Civil Hospital had reached the spot on being informed. DC Surbhi Malik and Police Commissioner Kaustabh Sharma also reached the spot. Meanwhile, the police got all the bodies out of the hut and sent them to the civil hospital for post-mortem. However, the cause of the fire is not yet known. Consequently, the forensic team collected samples from the spot and sent them to the lab for testing.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (East) Ludhiana Surinder Singh said that the deceased were migrant laborers from Bihar and were sleeping when the incident occurred. The deceased family was a resident of Samastipur in Bihar and has been identified as Suresh Sahni (55), his wife Aruna Devi (52), daughter Rakhi (15), Manisha (10), Geeta (8), Chanda (5) and 2-year-old son Sunny. The family's eldest son Rajesh Walwal, who had gone to sleep at his friend's house at night, survived the incident. Police reached the spot and the whole matter is being investigated.

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