The Talpatia police on Monday arrested four persons on the charge of setting fire to the house in which they were staying. The accused also set the house owner on fire.
According to sources, Kumar Dehury (80) had rented his house to Aju Singh, Suresan Naik, Sagar Ati and Tikeswar Naik. All of them wanted to grab his landed property as Kumar has no one to look after him, sources said.
“On Monday morning they tried to dig foundation over my plot. When I opposed, they poured kerosene on me and set me on fire, besides setting my house on fire,” said Kumar. He is now undergoing treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital with 40 per cent burn injury.
Rubbishing the allegation, the wives of the accused persons said, “We are all poor daily labourers. We were staying in Kumar’s house paying rent. He warned us to leave the house. We found him burning in the morning and tried to rescue him. Somebody from the family of Kumar tried to falsely entangle us with the case.” All the four accused were sent to judicial custody.