The man accused of igniting the fire in a three-storey building in Indore that left seven persons dead and nine injured, had spent more than two months in Pune jail in 2018 in a case of cheating and was out on bail, police said on Sunday.
The accused, Shubham aka Sanjay Dixit (27), was held by the Indore police during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday in connection with the fire incident and booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 436 (mischief by fire intending to destroy any building).
On Saturday morning, Mr Dixit had allegedly torched the scooter of a 22-year-old woman, who had turned down his marriage proposal. From the vehicle, the blaze spread to the building's parking area before it moved upwards and engulfed the premises, leaving seven residents dead, police said.
"Dixit, who is accused of triggering the devastating fire, was in jail in Pune for two-and-a-half months in 2018 in connection with cheating case against him as an employee of an investment consultancy firm," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sampat Upadhyay told reporters here.
He was later released on bail, he added.
Dixit had vacated a rented flat in the gutted building six months ago. He wanted to marry the woman who lived in the same building, but she was going to marry another person, the police said.
He and the woman also had a quarrel over Rs 10,000, they added. "Dixit had stayed in the gutted building twice and came in contact with the woman. The accused once had an argument with the woman, following which her neighbours had warned him to behave properly with her," DCP Upadhyay added.
After setting the woman's vehicle on fire, Dixit fled to his friend's place in Niranjanpur area and later moved to Lohamandi area, the police said.
Dixit, who originally hails from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, was working in a private firm here for the last couple of months, the official said.
On Sunday, Dixit faced the anger of the relatives of some of the victim and the elder sister of the woman who had spurned his marriage proposal, at a police station. They shouted at him and demanded that he be hanged to death.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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