Feroz Alam (35), who died along with his wife and four children after his house was gutted on Wednesday night, was due to shift to his newly-purchased flat this Sunday. The new flat is located near his rented accommodation in Zakir Nagar, where the incident took place. “The family members were very excited about shifting to a new accommodation as the one-room house was not sufficient for six members of their family. Feroz had purchased the flat using his hard-earned money and had made all arrangements to shift,” he added.
“I got a call at 4 a.m. on Thursday informing me that this incident has happened. After I reached the spot, the policemen started asking me the possibility of Feroz setting the house on fire, suspecting that he killed himself and his children. There is no way that Feroz could have done this. As far as I know, he had no financial or personal trouble,” said Feroz’s uncle Mujeeb-ur-Rehman. What is perplexing for both the police and the neighbours is that nobody heard any cry for help when the fire broke out inside the house. They are probing the case from all angles, including suicide. However, if the relatives and neighbours are to be believed, there was no visible reason which could have prompted Feroz to commit suicide. “I spoke to him around 8-30 p.m. on Wednesday and he told me that his wife is unwell, has some problem in her gums and I advised him to take her to a good dentist. There was nothing in that conversation which hinted that he could take that extreme step. As far as I know, there were no problems in the family. We never heard any quarrels between the husband and wife,” said Shahid, a neighbour.
