Delhi: Couple suffocated to death after getting trapped into blazing shop

New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) A 31-year-old man and his wife, who ran a grocery store in Delhi's Tikri Kalan, were suffocated to death after they got trapped inside their blazing grocery store, police said on Saturday.

The deceased have been identified as Vineet and his wife Renu, 29, both natives of Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur, and have two boys aged 10 and eight. The couple used to run the grocery store, they said.

Upon receiving information at 8.17 pm on Friday about smoke and flames emerging from a shop, a police team rushed to the spot and found the shutter of the grocery store partially lowered and the interior filled with dense smoke, a senior officer said.

According to a preliminary inquiry, the blaze is suspected to have started due to a short circuit in the shop's counter area, which quickly ignited plastic packets stored on and around it, the officer said.

The couple thought they could stop the fire from coming inside the shop by closing the shutter, but they suffocated to death instead, the officer said.

"In an attempt to escape, the couple tried to pull down the shutter but got trapped inside, resulting in severe suffocation," he said.

As the fire spread and smoke filled the confined space, an electric current passing through the shutter also prevented the couple from exiting, the officer added.

The police team forced open the shutter using a wooden log and rescued the two, and rushed them to Bahadurgarh's Oscar Hospital, where doctors declared them dead, police said.

Police and the fire brigade inspected the spot, and further proceedings are underway, they added.

Renu's sister, Alka, told PTI that it was the couple's children who first alerted their uncle after they noticed smoke billowing from the shop. "The children called my husband and begged him to save their parents. He rushed there immediately," she said.

According to Alka, her husband tried desperately to open the shutter from outside, "But the moment he touched the shutter, he was flung backwards. There was current running through it. He couldn't go near it again," Alka said.

She said the family is devastated and struggling to console the children, who are in deep shock after witnessing the incident unfold.

"My sister and her husband worked day and night to ensure their two children could have a better life. They hardly took a day off. Their only dream was to educate their kids well," she said.

Alka said the family is now anxious about the children's future and is seeking answers about the circumstances that led to the tragedy. "We don't understand how the shutter got closed when they were both inside. We are suspicious as something doesn't feel right," she added, demanding a thorough investigation. PTI SSJ SHS SHS