Sitamarhi: Three persons, including a five-year-old girl, died after fire broke out in a hotel on Bariarpur National Highway in Bihar's Sitamarhi last night, police said. Local residents alleged that miscreants had set the hotel on fire to vacate the land. Investigations have been initiated, officials said.
The incident took place at around 2 am when the hotel owner's family was sleeping. According to police, two men had come to the hotel looking for the owner Baiju Shah. The hotel owner's elder daughter, came out and told them that her father was not at home but had gone somewhere nearby. They left but, the hotel owner's wife came out of her room with her two children apprehending danger.
Half an hour later, the hotel caught fire. Three persons, including the owner's five-year-old daughter and two employees, who were sleeping inside were charred to death.
After the fire broke out in the hotel, it spread to seven adjacent shops in the neighborhood. All these shops were gutted in the fire. Five gas cylinders that were stored in the hotel exploded. Hearing the loud sound of explosion, the locals rushed to the spot and informed the police. Police said they have received complaints that the case is related to a land dispute. The matter is being probed from all angles, officials said.
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Hotel owner's wife Kiran Devi said that the people who had come to the hotel looking for her husband had their faces covered. “It was late at night and I could not see their faces. In the morning, I searched for Baiju everywhere and finally found him lying in an unconscious state on the field," Kiran Devi said.
Locals said that initially they had thought that Baiju had also been burnt to death. But, he was later found unconscious at some distance from the hotel. They informed police that the fire was purposely set to vacate the land. Police refused to comment.
