Kolkata | September 11, 2026
A 93-year-old retired central government official and his 86-year-old wife were killed in a house fire at Nimta in north Dum Dum early Thursday, with police suspecting that an air-conditioner fault may have triggered a short circuit.
The victims were identified as Nanigopal Das and Tripti Rani Das. The couple lived alone in their two-storey home in the Lichu Bagan area. Their first-floor bedroom and two other rooms were completely destroyed in the blaze, according to police.
Three fire engines were sent to the house after a neighbour raised the alarm at around 5.30am. Firefighters broke the windowpanes to enter the building. The couple’s bodies were recovered from inside the house and were severely burnt, police said.
“Preliminary investigation suggests a short circuit caused the fire. Two cases of unnatural death are registered,” an officer of the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate was quoted as saying. Police suspect that a mechanical fault in the air conditioner may have caused the short circuit, but the investigation is continuing.
Nanigopal Das was a former auditor general under the central government, according to the report. The couple’s son, Subrata Das, lives in Nagpur with his family. Their daughter died of cancer several years ago. Nanigopal’s nephew, Surajit Roy Chowdhury, lives nearby and said relatives learnt about the fire after a neighbour alerted them.
“We cannot come to terms with such a tragic death,” Roy Chowdhury said.
The fire destroyed the bedroom where the couple had been sleeping and spread to two other rooms on the first floor. The police have registered two unnatural-death cases as part of the investigation. The suspected electrical fault has not been established as the final cause of the fire, and further findings from the investigation are awaited.
