15 dead in Kolkata hotel fire; BJP slams CM Mamata over 'insensitive' response
Kolkata (PTI): Fifteen people, including a woman and two children, were killed in a devastating fire at a hotel in the Mechuapatti area of central Kolkata, police said on Wednesday.
Thirteen others were injured in the fire that broke out on Tuesday evening, a senior police officer said.
According to the Kolkata Police officer, the deceased include 11 men, eight of whom have been identified so far.
The condition of several of the injured is said to be critical, he said.
“There were 88 guests in 42 rooms at the time of the incident. A boy, a girl and a woman are among the dead. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Our forensic team will examine the site, which has been cordoned off,” the officer said.
The fire was first reported around 7:30 PM. Ten fire tenders were pressed into service, and the blaze was brought under control, after nearly 10 hours, this morning on Wednesday, a fire and emergency services official said.
"There were 15 fatalities in last night’s fire. Eight of the deceased have been identified," state minister Sujit Bose told PTI.
In the wake of the tragedy, the Kolkata Police has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident.
West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar lashed out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of "insensitivity" for attending a day-long inauguration programme of Jagannath Dham in Digha while the fire tragedy was unfolding in the state capital.
"Yesterday, a devastating fire in the Mechhua area of Burrabazar claimed the lives of more than 14 innocent people. Many more are battling for their lives. Yet, the chief minister chose to remain silent and continued with her religious event in Digha," Majumdar said in a strongly worded statement.
"This exposes her lack of empathy and the failure of her administration. While helpless citizens were trapped in flames and dying in pain, the CM was busy exploiting religion for political gain. Her year-round appeasement and election-time religious posturing have once again taken precedence over governance," he alleged
Majumdar called upon BJP workers across the state to immediately mobilise relief efforts and extend support to the victims' families.
"I will personally stand by the affected families and oversee our party's involvement in the rescue and relief operations," he said.
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Ex-army man hacked into pieces by wife, lover in UP's Ballia; 4 arrested
Ballia (UP), May 13 (PTI): A 44-year-old woman, with the help of her lover and two others, allegedly hacked her ex-army soldier husband into six pieces in a village here, police on Tuesday said.
The accused dumped the body parts in different locations to conceal the identity of the victim.
The incident came to light Saturday with the discovery of severed hands and legs, wrapped in polythene, in a field near Khareed village under Sikandarpur Police Station.
The victim was later identified as Devendra Kumar, a 62-year-old retired Army personnel, police said.
Maya Devi, his wife, at first tried to mislead the investigation by filing a missing person complaint on May 10 at the Ballia City Kotwali Police Station.
Things took a dramatic turn, when her own daughter, Ambli Gautam, testified against Maya Devi and accused her of killing her father.
Based on the complaint, Maya Devi was booked under charges of murder and arrested.
Ballia Superintendent of Police Omveer Singh told reporters on Tuesday that Maya Devi confessed to killing her husband with the help of her lover, truck driver Anil Yadav, and two others, Mithilesh Patel and Satish Yadav.
Mithilesh Patel was arrested on Monday, while Anil Yadav and Satish Yadav were nabbed on Tuesday.
According to police, the group killed Devendra Kumar inside his home in Bahadurpur locality and then cut the body into six parts, severing both arms, legs, and the head, before dumping the pieces in separate locations to prevent identification.
At Maya Devi's instance, police recovered the torso from a well in Khareed Darauli village.
On Tuesday, during a vehicle check near Town Polytechnic in Parikhara, police accosted Anil Yadav and Satish Yadav, who fired gunshots at the team. Police in retaliatory fire shot Anil Yadav in the leg. He is recuperating in the district hospital.
A country-made pistol, a spent cartridge, and a live round were recovered from him, and from Satish Yadav, the murder weapon.
The SP said Maya Devi orchestrated the murder because she had an affair with Anil Yadav.
The brutal killing, which has triggered shock and anger in the area, comes as the latest in a string of similarly executed spousal murders that took place in Uttar Pradesh in recent months.
In March, a former merchant navy officer in Meerut was killed by his wife and her lover, who stuffed his body in a drum and filled it with cement.
In another incident in Deoria last month, a woman and her lover killed her husband just ten days after he returned from Dubai, cut his body in two, and dumped it in a suitcase in a field.
He was identified by the airline tag still attached to the luggage.
In Auraiya, a newlywed man was killed last month barely 15 days into marriage by his wife and her lover, who hired a contract killer.
