Two international students started a fire in the basement of a service apartment complex in Hennur while attempting to steal petrol from a bike. One of them threw a lit cigarette on spilt petrol, which started a fire that gutted one bike and damaged six other bikes in the parking lot.
Hennur police have arrested Wail Mansoor (22) from Sudan and Mustafa Mubarak (22) from Bahrain. While Mr. Mansoor is a resident of R.T. Nagar and is pursuing an engineering course (III semester), Mr. Mubarak is a resident of Hennur Bande and a final-year pharmacy student.
According to the police, the duo sneaked into the parking lot in the basement of Limonium Hospitality Apartments at Hennur Bande to steal petrol. The accidently ignited the fire while transferring petrol from one of the bikes into a soda bottle.
Residents woke up in the wee hours of Friday after hearing a loud blast in their basement. They rushed to the spot and found half a dozen bikes engulfed in flames. The sound that they heard was that of a tyre blast, police said. They brought buckets of water to douse the fire.
The incident was caught on the building’s CCTV cameras and the footage was handed over to the police. Based on the footage, police arrested the duo and booked them for theft and mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage. They were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
