It was 2.15 am on June 13. A family of five was asleep in their two-room flat on the fourth floor of a five-storey residential building in Southeast Delhi’s Tughlakabad.
Pankaj Kumar Pandey (28), a mobile phone shop owner, had moved into the flat just two years ago. He had purchased it from a builder who had converted the property into a multi-storey residential complex.
He lived there with his mother Guddi (50), his sisters Soni (24) and Mani (21), and their maternal grandmother Sushila Devi (70).
The purchase, relatives said, was meant to secure a better future for the family after the death of their father, Subhash Chand Pandey, a driver, who succumbed to a kidney-related illness two years earlier.
Pankaj with his family. (Express Photo)
That night, a fire broke out in the building’s ground-floor parking area, where about eight two-wheelers were parked. Within minutes, the flames tore through the structure, trapping residents on the upper floors.
Ten people were rescued. Eight were injured including Pankaj and his family. They were rushed to hospital with severe burns and smoke inhalation.
By morning, Pankaj, Sushila and Soni were dead. Two days later, on June 15, Guddi died while undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital.
Mani, the youngest, remains in the ICU.
“She doesn’t know yet,” said Vivek Jha, a cousin who grew up with the sisters. “Her entire family is gone. We don’t know how to tell her when she regains consciousness.”
Vivek said he had been staying with the family until May. “If I had been there, maybe I could have done something,” he said, breaking down. Mani, he added, is pursuing a BA degree through the School of Open Learning at the University of Delhi.
At the site of the incident. (File photo).
Another cousin, Anand, said Mani is now the only surviving member of the immediate family. “I don’t know where she will go after she is discharged,” he said.
A scooter, a CCTV twist
The building housed four other families. Among them was the family of Deepak, a bike taxi driver who was away in Agra that night. His wife Mumtaz (23) and sisters Kareena (18) and Seema (16) were also injured in the fire and are recovering.
One of the scooters gutted in the fire belonged to Deepak.
As in many previous fire incidents in Delhi, investigators initially suspected a short circuit as the cause. Police believed the blaze may have originated from an electrical meter on the ground floor, while others speculated that a fault in one of the parked vehicles could have triggered it.
Then, a 50-second CCTV footage sent the probe in an entirely new direction.
A day after the incident, a neighbour reviewing the footage noticed a glaring detail: a young girl, with her face covered, was seen entering the building just before the fire broke out.
Two days after the incident, during the probe, the police had found that the fire was not accidental.
(Express Photos: Vivek Prakash Krishna)
He immediately informed the police and handed over the footage.
When police reviewed it, they saw the girl entering the basement area. Within 30 seconds, a sudden explosion occurred on the ground floor, followed by a burst of flames. The girl was then seen hurriedly leaving the building and slinking away.
Investigators later found that she had allegedly set a parked scooter on fire, triggering the blaze that engulfed the building.
The police got to work. This was arson.
Teams from the local station and the district’s special staff collected CCTV footage from nearby locations to trace the suspect’s movements. Investigators eventually discovered that she had arrived on a scooter driven by another woman.
Using the footage, police identified and located both women and took them into custody. One of the suspects, aged 27, runs a stall in the locality. The scooter used in the crime was recovered from her possession.
The second suspect turned out to be a 17-year-old girl, who was apprehended from her residence.
Police said the woman and the teenager knew each other as they were involved in similar businesses in the area.
The fire broke out in a five-storey residential building in Southeast Delhi’s Tughlakabad on June 13. (Express Photo by Vivek Prakash Krishna)
A plan gone awry
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari, the juvenile admitted during questioning that the woman had allegedly instigated her and provided petrol and a matchbox to set fire to Deepak’s scooter.
Police said the woman then admitted that the conspiracy had allegedly been masterminded by her associate Niranjan (33), a resident of Navjeevan Camp, and his brother Rajkumar. Both were arrested.
According to investigators, the brothers wanted to take revenge over a personal dispute with Deepak.
But what was the woman’s motive?
Police said that Deepak had borrowed Rs 50,000 from her several months ago but failed to repay the loan on time. “The outstanding amount, along with interest, had risen to Rs 80,000. She kept demanding her money back but Deepak was refusing to pay,” a police officer said.
So, they hatched their plan — not anticipating it would go so horribly wrong.
Police records show that Niranjan and Rajkumar have criminal histories, including cases of robbery and attempted murder. Niranjan Singh was arrested in 2020 for transporting ganja and was later released on bail. He was also declared a ‘Bad Character’ (BC) by the local police station.
Police first registered a case under sections 287 and 106(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for negligent conduct and causing death by negligence. “In light of the findings, serious charges under the BNS, including criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, attempt to commit culpable homicide, mischief by fire, and lurking house-trespass by night,” an officer said.
Four lives snuffed out
Pankaj’s family, meanwhile, has yet to come to terms with why such a tragedy had struck them.
According to a relative, the family previously lived in Pul Prahladpur and hailed from Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh. Pankaj’s mother was from Jharkhand.
With tears in his eyes, Vivek said, “Soni didi and Mani were more than sisters… I grew up with them here in Delhi… I even stayed with them at their house for a few months before returning to my home in Prahladpur in May. If I had been with them, I might have been able to do something to save my cousins.”
Vivek’s father, Bambam Jha, said Mani suffered 30 per cent burn injuries and has severe chest congestion due to smoke inhalation. “We have not told her about the deaths of her family members. We don’t know what will happen when she learns that her entire family is gone,” Jha said.
“The government has not extended any help to us so far, although our main focus right now is Mani’s treatment,” he added.
He said after Subhash’s death, the entire responsibility of the family fell on Pankaj. “Guddi, my sister, had a hearing impairment,” he added.
Jha said the family wants justice. “Innocent people have lost their lives. An entire family was wiped out because of someone else’s negligence. At the very least, our Chief Minister and the government should ensure justice for this girl (Mani) and extend some support to her,” Jha said.
The fire broke out in a five-storey residential building in Southeast Delhi’s Tughlakabad on June 13. (Express Photo by Vivek Prakash Krishna) 
Pankaj with his family. (Express Photo)
At the site of the incident. (File photo).
Two days after the incident, during the probe, the police had found that the fire was not accidental.
The fire broke out in a five-storey residential building in Southeast Delhi’s Tughlakabad on June 13. (Express Photo by Vivek Prakash Krishna)
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