Woman, baby killed in slum shed fire in Bangalore

A woman and her seven-month-old son, residents of Ragi Gudda slum in JP Nagar died due to burn injuries on Friday morning. While a short circuit is suspected to be the cause of the incident, the police are not ruling out suicide.

The incident took place between 10.30am and 10.45am. The deceased—Nisha, 21, and her son Tahir—were living in a shed. While Nisha died in the shed, the toddler succumbed en route to hospital.

The incident came to light at 11am when Nisha’s neighbours saw smoke emanating from the shed. They informed the fire control room. But before fire tenders could reach the spot, one of the neighbours rushed into the house and found the child writhing in pain. He took the toddler to hospital, but the baby succumbed.
Nisha and Sheik Hussain alias Babu, married three years ago. Babu said at 11am, his neighbour called him to inform him about the incident. By the time he reached home, his wife had died. He learnt that a neighbour had taken his son to hospital. But when he called the neighbour, he learnt that his son, too, passed away.
A stitching machine, clothes, TV and all other household material in the shed were gutted in the incident.

Was it suicide?
Deputy commissioner of police (south) Sonia Narang said the preliminary investigation suggested that the fire broke out because of a short-circuit.
She said the postmortem report would throw more light on how the two died.  Narang pointed out that electricity connections to all the sheds in the slum are illegal.

Although Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has not provided the connection, a person claiming to be from a Bescom official collects `50 as electricity bill every month from each shed in the slum.

Sheds in the slum reportedly have heavy-duty electrical equipment like fridges, television, grinders and electric
stoves.

The police said although the incident indicates a of short-circuit caused the fire, the possibility of Nisha committing suicide cannot be ruled out as Babu’s shed reeked of kerosene. The police said even the deceased’s body smelt of kerosene.

JP Nagar corporator N Chandrashekar Raju, too, said it is a case of suicide. He reasoned that if it were a case of short-circuit, then the other sheds in the slum, too, would have been affected. Raju said he had learnt that Nisha and Babu had a troubled relation and this could have driven her to suicide.
Bescom’s probe
The managing director of the Bescom has decided to hire an independent investigator to look into the cause of the death and ascertain if it happened because of a short-circuit.
A Bescom source said that the power distribution company would take action against the person collecting money for the illegal electricity connections in the slum. The official said Bescom is authorised to discontinue the illegal connections.

A year ago, the slum had at least 1,000 sheds. They were demolished and about 350 sheds were re-built. But they had no electricity connection.

Raju said the slum board had demolished the slum to rehabilitate slum-dwellers.

He said the new sheds were temporary accommodation and work was under way to build 1,500 houses at a cost of `35 crore.
Raju said that in the new accommodation, the slum board had provided electricity with a common meter. He added that 800 houses have already been built.