Fire kills CRPF trooper in Delhi

A 42-year-old head constable died in a fire that broke out in the CRPF training directorate office here early Saturday, the Delhi Fire Service said.

The fire engulfed the third and fourth floors of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) building in south Delhi's R.K. Puram area at around 1.40 a.m.

"Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The firefighters managed to douse the blaze at around 3 a.m.," an official said.

They later found the body of CRPF head constable Lingam Gauda under a computer table in the record room, the official added but could not immediately confirm what caused the fire.

"The fire broke out in the Electronic Data Processing (EDP) centre of the force located in the building of our training directorate office in R. K. Puram," CRPF media coordinator Tamal Sanyal told IANS.

The EDP cell of CRPF works in the training directorate wing and deals with the online record management of salary and other emoluments of the force.

Sanyal said head constable Gauda, who was sleeping inside the building, apparently called a guard posted near the building when the fire broke out.

"The guard made a call to the fire service department and later reached the floor but could not get entry there because of fire and smoke," said the official.

"We tried to contact our trooper on his mobile number but he did not respond. He might have died of suffocation by the time the firefighters reached the spot and took him out of the building," he said.