2 fire station employees ‘set 3 factories ablaze’ to steal diesel from fire truck, arrested in Jaipur

Both of them were working as contractual employees in the fire station of Sarna Dungar under Kardhani police station, Jaipur. They were hired through a private contractor after they submitted experience certificates for firefighting and driving, police said.

“During our investigation into multiple incidents of fire in various factories, Kardhani police station in-charge Harish Solanki received an input that the arson in Sarna Dungar (Kardhani) of RIICO area was perpetrated by miscreants who came on bikes. We later searched CCTV footage of the area which led to the arrest of the accused,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (West) Amit Budaniya said.

To verify the information given by an informer, the police have prepared a route map after inspecting videos from about 100 CCTV cameras and did a technical data analysis of the suspects, officials said.

During questioning, Rahul and Vijay admitted to setting fire to three factories, police said.

According to police, the duo set fire to a plastic factory in November 2024, in which an estimated loss of about Rs 14-15 lakh was reported, another factory, Ram Industries, on December 24, 2024, (loss of about Rs 5 lakh) and Riya Organic Factory on January 7 this year in which an estimated Rs 14 lakh of loss was reported.

Police said the accused used to travel to the factories on motorcycle wearing masks and set fire and then return to the fire station. When they get information about the fire from the control room, they would go to the spot with the fire brigade vehicle. While extinguishing the fire, they would show more diesel consumption than the amount consumed by the fire brigade vehicle and get the bills cleared, police explained.