The fire at the quarter of the deputy leader of Congress in Uttarakhand Assembly Karan Mahra at the MLA Hostel has assumed political colour as the state Congress president Pritam Singh said  that the fire at the quarter could have been ignited deliberately. Linking the fire with the claim of Mahra that he had evidences of corruption against the Chief Minister’s relatives, Singh said that a full-fledged inquiry should be ordered into the fire incident. “There are reasons to suspect that the flame could have been deliberately ignited to destroy the evidences,” he said while talking to the media persons at the state party headquarters on Thursday. 

“I personally visited the place and prima facie, it appears that the fire was deliberate. The mystery is that the fire, instead of spreading, died on its own and it appears that someone was there to douse it. What makes one suspicious is the fact that there is no CCTV footage and the fire alarm which was there in the room failed to function.’’

Contacted by The Pioneer, Mahra claimed that many important documents which were strong evidences had been gutted in the fire.“My bed along with the mattresses was totally destroyed in the fire. I normally place books and other things which I read on one side of my bed,’’ he said. Mahra also cast question on the role of police in the incident, saying that they had acted very late long after the incident was reported.

The incident of fire had come to notice on March 11 when Mahra had opened his quarter which had been locked since March 8. Mahra had  found that the bed, mattresses, air-conditioner, refrigerator, some files and other gadgets  had been gutted in the blaze.

It is worth mentioning here that Mahra on February 23 had claimed that the Congress would screen in all 13 district headquarters of the State the sting CD displaying some relatives of the CM forging deals. He had demanded the State Government to constitute a SIT headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the charges levelled by the owner of a news channel against CM and the CD released by him.