One held for sparking Mizoram oil tanker inferno

AIZAWL: The Mizoram Police has arrested one person who allegedly lit a lighter in the middle of the road near an oil tanker and sparked a fire which claimed 11 lives in the Turial area of Aizawl district in the State. According to the police, at 4:35 pm on October 29, a tanker carrying 22,000 litres of petrol that was supposed to be delivered at Champhai met with an accident within the vicinity of Tuirial Airfield by turning turtle on the main road, thus spilling petrol out from the tanker on the surface of the road. A lot of people had gathered to collect and store the spilt petrol when it suddenly caught fire around 5.50 pm and four people lost their life on the spot.

Bawngkawn Police immediately proceeded with the investigation and based on the information from a reliable source, the police arrested one person identified as TBC Lallawmawma (28) of Tuirial at midnight of November 1.

"During sustained interrogation, the accused admitted his guilt on the morning of 2.11.2022 at about 11:00 am, stating that on a fateful day, he went to collect the spilling petrol from the oil tanker; however, as there was a huge crowd engaged in collecting the spilling petrol and due to the chaos, he was unable to get enough petrol. Infuriated, he came out in the middle of the road and lit a lighter and exposed it to a plastic water bottle containing some quantity of petrol collected by him and being carried by him, just to test whether it could burn or not," the police said. (ANI)

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