Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
In a shocking incident,a father allegedly set ablaze his son over a business dispute.Arpit Kumar, 25,who battled severe burns for a week,succumbed on Thursday.
The accused has been identified as, Surendra Kumar aka Babu,51 resident of Azad nagar chamarajpet and native of Rajasthan.
Senior officer told reporters,
The crime was brought to light after Surendra’s neighbour,an eye witness to the scene,reported it to the police.
A CCTV footage of the incident has also been captured,in which Arpit is seen backing off from his father,who follows him out of a godown and lights his son ablaze by pouring thinner chemical on him.
Surendra Kumar’s family ran a lorry finance business,and they later diversified into construction and paints.
His son Arpit Kumar had also joined the business, and allegedly ran into losses worth over Rs.1.5 crore.This had been the source of conflict between the father and son.
On April 1 afternoon,around 2:30 p.m,the two were heard having a bitter tiff in the office,said complainant Ambareesh,a lorry driver who had taken finance from Surendra Kumar and was an eyewitness to the incident.
Suddenly,we saw Arpit run out of the office and his father following him out and kept on scolding his son.
Arpit Kumar was drenched in liquid and Surendra Kumar had a match box.He lit a match and threw it at his son, but it missed him.
Even as Arpit kept screaming at his father not to do so,Surendra Kumar lit another match and took it near his son’s hand.
Arpit was soon engulfed by the fire.He ran around,screaming for help.We soon put out the fire and rushed him to the hospital,said Ambareesh in his complaint.
Arpit Kumar had suffered severe burns and was battling for his life for the past one week. However, he died on Thursday,following which Ambareesh lodged a complaint with the police. Chamarajpet police arrested Surendra Kumar and are investigating further.
