Close on the heels of the brutal murder of five members of a family in Mahanga of Cuttack over property dispute, a house was allegedly set on fire with six members of the family locked inside in Bhadrak district.
The arson took place at the house of Sudarshan Das at Gabasahi under the Town police jurisdiction in the wee hours of Thursday. Das’ six-member family narrowly escaped the arson attack.
However, their five-room house and property of lakhs of rupees were gutted in the blaze.
According to sources, Sudarshan and his family members were asleep in their house when miscreants set the house on fire late last night. After waking up, the family members tried to rush out of the house to save their lives. However, they found the house was locked from the outside.
After trying hard, they managed to come out of the burning house from the backyard. Sudarshan alleged that the arson was a fallout of a past enmity.
After a complaint was lodged with the Town police by the family, a team reached the village and launched an investigation into the case.
“My husband woke up to relieve himself when he noticed smoke inside our house at 3.37 am. When we try to come out, we found that the door was locked from the outside. I had saved gold and other items worth lakhs of rupees for the marriage of my daughter which have reduced to ashes now,” said Binapani Das, a member of the family.
“They locked the door after setting the house on fire. It was pre-planned to eliminate our family,” said another family member, Lizarani Das.