Malda (WB), May 23: Two persons were charred to death in a blaze that gutted several shops in West Bengal’s Malda district on Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
District SP Pradiip Kumar Yadav said that the fire broke out in a shop-cum-godown at Netaji Commercial Market in Malda town when labourers were unloading containers containing carbide.
Carbide is widely used in catalysing early ripening of fruits, including mangoes, which are grown in large quantities in numerous orchards in Malda district.
The two persons who died were labourers engaged in unloading the containers in one of the shops at the market situated within the English Bazar police station precincts, he said.
Yadav said that about nine to ten shops dealing in groceries, jewellery, firecrackers, stationery goods and carbide besides a store room for spice were severely damaged in the fire.
He said that a few persons have been detained and were being questioned in connection with the fire.
The SP said that the bodies of the two labourers – identified as Ganesh Karmakar (48) and Raju Rishi (48) – have been handed over to their respective family members after post-mortem examination.
“Requisition has been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, for an expert team to visit the place of occurrence to know the actual cause of the fire,” the SP said in a statement. (PTI)
