A woman and four of her children were burnt to death in a blaze in the Shahbad Dairy area on Sunday night.

The deceased children have been identified as Shivani (10), Baby (6), Rajrani (3), and 40-day-old Babu. Only 4-year-old Deepak survived the blaze and is admitted in hospital with serious burns. According to a statement by Kamlesh (43), their mother, who succumbed to her injuries on Monday, the fire started with a spark in the TV.

Their neighbours woke up to their screams around 11 pm. “We heard the sudden cries and ran outside to find Kamlesh’s room ablaze,” Sanjay, a neighbour, said.

Kamlesh’s husband Suresh, who works as a labourer, was not present last night when the fire broke out, the neighbours have alleged but he was the first to come after the fire, they said. “He was there when we went out. He was pulling his children out with his burnt hands,” another neighbour said.

Kamlesh’s family, however, have alleged that Suresh was involved in the fire; Kamlesh’s mother kept repeating that her daughter had been killed.

But Kamlesh herself cleared her husband and told the SDM that it was because of a shot-circuit that their room caught fire. “She told the SDM there was a spark in the TV set and then the kerosene stove caught fire, and suddenly everything was burning,” a senior police officer said. A call was made for help at 11.10 pm and fire tenders were rushed to the spot. But by then the room and its occupants had been burnt completely.

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