Woman, mom burn to death at Dum Dum flat

KOLKATA: A woman and her daughter were charred to death after a fire broke out in their upscale Dum Dum apartment on Friday evening. Cops, however, suspect it to be a case of suicide after recovering the severely burnt bodies from the bedroom.
A security guard at Mall Enclave, an apartment complex on Dum Dum Mall Road, was the first to notice smoke billowing out of the window of the first-floor apartment and alerted other residents.Calls were made to fire brigade and Dum Dum police station. Firemen arrived with two fire tenders and broke into the apartment. Inside, they located the source of the fire in the bedroom.
After dousing the flames, they found the bodies of Dipti Mukherjee (75) and her daughter Swati Mukherjee (53) which were later sent to Dum Dum municipal hospital.
Sources said that there was an LPG cylinder inside the room and that it was the only room that was gutted in the fire.
According to residents of the complex, there were frequent arguments between Swati and her husband Subrata Mukherjee, who runs a business in Howrah, in the past week. "The family used to maintain cordial relations with everyone. The flat is owned by Subrata and Dipti used to live with her daughter and son-in-law. But of late, the couple used to pick fights on a regular basis. We are not aware what led to the conflict," a neighbour said.
Subrata was not in the flat when the fire broke out. On hearing the news, he reached the hospital.
Cops said they had started a case of unnatural death. Further action will be taken after getting the post-mortem report. "We are not ruling out any possibility at this juncture. Two charred bodies have been recovered and sent for autopsy," said Barrackpore Commissionerate deputy commissioner (Zone II) Ananda Roy.