Lucknow: A retired Inspector General of Police (IGP) was suffocated after a fire erupted at his residence at Indira Nagar in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh, late on Saturday night, the police said on Sunday. According to additional deputy commissioner of police (north zone) Abhijit R Shankar, the residents of sector 18, Indira Nagar, informed the police at 11pm on Saturday that there was a fire in the house of the retired IG Dinesh Chandra Pandey. Immediately after getting information, the police swung into action and pressed five tenders into service to douse the flames.
Shankar said that Pandey had been suffocated, and his wife and son, who sustained severe burns, were admitted to the trauma centre of the King George’s Medical University (KGMU). According to reports, the air-conditioner caught fire because of a short circuit and it engulfed the room where Pandey was sleeping. No sooner had the wife of Pandey, Aruna and son Shashank, who were sleeping in another room, had seen the smoke than they reached and spot and tried to rescue him, but their efforts came to naught.
The policemen and the firemen soaked the flames and took the injured to Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences where the doctors declared Pandey brought dead. Aruna and her Shashank were referred to KGMU.
