Around midnight, Rohan Kumar Jha, received the first call from his sister Muskan Chaudhary crying for help. She told him that a fire broke out in their building and the door was locked from outside.
Over the next few minutes, Mr. Rohan and his father received at least two more calls from Muskan. “Papa bachalo… Papa bachalo… aag lag gai hai… darwaza band hai bahar se [Save me father… fire broke out and the door is locked from outside],” she said.
Meanwhile, Vijay Chaudhary, brother of deceased Uday Chaudhary, also received a call from Muskan. The phone was picked up by their nephew Gopal. She asked for help from them too.
Muskan and her husband Uday made several calls for help before they along with their three children Anjali, Adarsh and two-month-old Tulsi perished in the fire.
Mr. Gopal and Mr. Rohan, both living nearby, reached the house within minutes but couldn’t save their loved ones as the fire had spread massively.
Uday’s family said that on Sunday, he had gone to Ramlila Maidan to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally and had sent a WhatsApp message to his cousin regarding the same on Sunday night. A neighbour, Ajay Kumar, said that Uday had come to his house on Sunday night to attend a function, which was organised by Ajay’s family on the 10th day of his father’s death.
Meanwhile, family of Chaudhary said that they suspect foul play and raised doubt that someone had deliberately locked the door from outside. Police, however, said that the matter is being investigated.
Mr. Rohan said that Chaudhary and his family had moved to the first floor of the building owned by Jha about two-three years ago “They wanted to vacate the building as there were internal issues between Jha and his family members. They had planned to move out on January 1,” said Mr. Rohan.
Internal issues
Talking about the internal issues, Shikha Jha, sister of Sanju Jha, who died in the fire, said that her sister was tortured by the family after her husband Jitender’s death in January this year.
“They didn’t want to take care of her and her daughter. She started working at a city hospital about six months ago because of this. They used to abuse and thrash her and wanted her to leave the house. Her sister-in-law Pooja, who had survived the fire, had hit her with a slipper a few days ago. She was living in a separate room on the first floor for the last four days. That is why our mother had gone there to help her,” Ms. Shikha said, adding that she suspects foul play and demanded an investigation into it.
Ms. Shikha claimed that a major fight between her sister and other family members broke out on Sunday. “My sister called me in the afternoon and told me that they had threatened to kill her,” she alleged.
