26 autos gutted in mysterious fire

Autos were parked at a night stand in Beedi colony

In all, 26 autorickshaws were gutted in a mysterious fire mishap at Beedi Colony at Udayagiri in the city on Wednesday.

A total of 33 autos, including six goods autos, were parked as usual at Sharif Auto Stand in the colony. The stand was meant for night parking and taken out for job by the drivers/ owners in the morning hours.

Fire erupted around 3 am, following the alleged explosion of an auto LPG cylinder in one of the three-wheelers, according to sources. In no time, the fire engulfed the surrounding autorickshaws too.

Fire personnel at Bannimantap, who received a call at 3.15 am, rushed to the spot with a fire tender and took nearly half-an-hour to put down the fire. Fortunately, the cylinders in most of the remaining autos had remained intact. Surprisingly, the stand is located in the midst of houses and the timely arrival of fire personnel averted what could have led to a devastating mishap. Yet nobody did hear any sound of blast, and claimed innocence before the police too. Following the suspicion over cause of fire, Udayagiri police are investigating the case.

Ex-RFO robbed

A gang of six dacoits raided the house of a retired RFO in Hunsur taluk in the district and made away with gold and cash on Tuesday. Ramakrishna, aged 64 years is that retired RFO who was robbed by the dacoits at his house in Chilkunda village. Ramakrishna was hoodwinked by the gang under the pretext for asking help to repair their vehicle that had developed a snag. The gang asked Ramakrishna for a spanner to repair the vehicle only to rob him later. IGP (southern range) K Ramachandra Rao, SP R Dileep visited the spot.