Kapurthala:
An Army Captain from Coimbatore was burnt alive while a Major was seriously injured when a fire broke out on Wednesday night in their tent in village Miani Bhagupurian, where a military exercise was underway.
Captain Anand N and Major Sudhir Parmar were sleeping in their tent when a fire broke out due to high velocity winds last night trapping them inside, district police chief Ram Singh said on Thursday.
While Anand was charred to death, Major Parmar was admitted to an Army hospital at Tibri and was stated to be out of danger, according to police.
Police suspect that the tent caught fire due to mosquito repellent which was burning inside it.
The entire tent, cot and other articles lying inside it were reduced to ashes while the Armymen tried to douse the blaze.
An Army exercise was underway in Mand area of the village for the past 48 hours. Police have registered a case and sent the body of the captain to Kapurthala civil hospital for postmortem.
The Army refused to register a case with the police and gave a statement that it was an accidental fire and held no one responsible for the incident, police sources said.