Bengaluru:
A house fire that claimed six lives in Karnataka’s Belagavi is now being looked at more closely, after CCTV footage emerged showing an unidentified man arriving at the home with a bucket just minutes before the blaze broke out.
The fire broke out at the Damone family home in Chavhat Galli on September 15. Six members of the family, including Gajanan Damone, lost their lives in the blaze.
Police reviewing security camera footage found that a man arrived near the house at around 1.58 am, carrying a bucket. Around two minutes later, at approximately 2 am, he was seen leaving the area, this time without the bucket.
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The fire reportedly started shortly after he left, prompting investigators to ask what took place during those two minutes and whether the man’s presence had any bearing on how the fire started.
The case was first registered at Market Police Station, with officers initially suspecting a short circuit or a refrigerator blast as the cause of the fire.
Since the CCTV footage surfaced, however, police say they are examining both the electrical fault theory and the movements of the unidentified man. Investigators have visited the site and are working to trace the bucket seen in the footage.
Officers are questioning people living in the area in an effort to identify the man caught on camera. So far, investigators say they have found no confirmed link between him and the deaths, and the exact cause of the fire is still being determined.
