A fire was reported early on Sunday from the Malviya Nagar building where former Delhi Minister and local MLA Somnath Bharti lives with his family.
Though there was no casualty, a neighbouring apartment was gutted and a portion of Mr. Bharti’s office on the second floor was partly damaged.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, who has demanded that the matter be investigated, told The Hindu that the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out. Mr. Bharti later took to Twitter to share images of the damaged building and claimed to have had a narrow escape.
“I escaped death by half a minute. @CPDelhi kindly investigate d cause behind this because this has never happened b4,” he tweeted.
Mr. Bharti said he was at home when the fire broke out around 12.30 a.m. His mother, brother and the latter’s wife were also in the house at the time of the incident.
“The fire started from one of the lower floors and the flames made their way up engulfing my floor and touching a part of my office, which is adjacent to the house on the second floor. My dog was trapped in the fire but we managed to rescue him,” said Mr. Bharti.
Mr. Bharti added that no important document was lost.
An official of the Fire Department said a call was received at 1.07 a.m., after which five fire tenders were rushed to the spot.
The fire was put out after two hours, he said.
No foul play: Cops
No case has been registered yet. Officers of the South district police said that prima facie there appeared to be no foul play.
“It was because of a short circuit in an empty flat. We took Harish Gandhi, the owner of the flat to the spot where the fire started ,” said a senior police officer.
