At least three cars and seven motorcycles were gutted when a man allegedly threw a cigarette butt on petrol in a fit of rage after spotting a two-wheeler parked in a place where he would usually keep his bike.
The incident took place in the Ekta Oleander housing complex in Entally early on Saturday.
The leaping flames spread from the vehicles to two electric feeder boxes nearby, leaving a large section of residents panic-stricken.
Two fire engines were called in as the fire spread through rows of vehicles parked inside the complex.
A police team reached the housing complex around 1.30am and rescued the alleged offender from a group of other residents who had rushed out in the dark seeing their cars on fire.
The area was cordoned off and the man was brought to Entally police station. He was later arrested.
“We have arrested the accused, Barum Khamroz, in his late 20s, for arson and on other charges. A case has been drawn up. Forensic experts have been summoned for their opinion on the cause of the fire,” an officer of Entally police station said.
CCTV footage available with the housing complex — located on Radhanath Chowdhury Road and spread over 3.5 acres — showed Khamroz first pushing a motorcycle down before proceeding to do the same to another, the police said. The two motorcycles were parked adjacent to one another at the parking lot of one of the three towers of the housing complex, the police added.
Every tower has 13 floors.
“A section of the security guards who witnessed the incident said the man kicked one of the two motorcycles after stepping down from his bike and seeing it parked at his designated parking lot,” a police officer said.
“He then pulled down another motorbike that was parked close to the first one,” the officer said.
Petrol started oozing out of one of the motorcycles, the police said their preliminary investigation had revealed. “As the fuel continued to trickle, the accused threw a lit cigarette butt on it,” the officer said.
The fire spread in a flash and engulfed seven motorcycles parked in a row and spread to three cars that were parked at a designated parking lot along the boundary wall of the housing complex.
Security guards told the police about “balls of fire going up in the air” as the vehicles burnt.
A section of residents rushed out of their apartments.
From the cars, the fire spread to the two feeder boxes of the electric supply line, the police said.
“Some of the residents got hold of the man and began beating him while others informed the police and the fire services department,” a security guard on duty told the investigating police team.
Within minutes, the cars and motorbikes were completely ravaged, a senior official of the fire and emergency services team that arrived said.
“A section of residents had started firefighting by the time we reached. After the fire was controlled, one could see the skeletal remains of the vehicles,” he said.
The secretary of the Ekta Oleander residents’ association, Manish Maheshwari, said: “The man came on his two-wheeler and somehow lost his cool seeing another motorcycle parked in his designated parking lot. Residents tend to park two wheelers in empty parking spaces and this practice is prevalent in many housing complexes. What followed is extremely scary.”
The police said the accused is engaged in his family business.
