Liquor shop set on fire, property worth nearly Rs. 2 mln damaged

By Rabindra Upreti, Bardibas, March 8: A firethat broken out at a liquor shop located at Imali Bazaar in Gaushala-10 of Mahottari has destroyed property worth about Rs 900,000.

The police has taken a person into custody on suspicion of setting the fire at Dipendra Liquor Shop, located in the centre of the market.

According to witnesses of the market and CCTV footage, the incident occurred at around 1:00 am on Saturday night.

According to Pramod Mahato, proprietor of Pappu Traders near the incident site, CCTV footage has shown an unidentified person who covered his face, sprinkled a petrol-like substance inside the shop, set it on fire, and ran towards the east.
As the flames spread, liquor bottles inside the wooden shop building began to explode with loud sounds.

Neighbouring shopkeepers then noticed the fire and appealed for help.

In the attempts of local traders and villagers , the fire was brought under control after about an hour.

By that time, the shop had already burned completely.

According to the affected liquor shop owner Dipendra Mahato, he had closed the shop at around 11:00 pm on Saturday and gone to sleep at his house in Kalipur, about one kilometres west of the market.

The arsonist took advantage of the deserted shop and set the fire.

Mahato stated the fire destroyed liquor worth around five lakh rupees, Coke, Frooti, a fridge, the shop house, essential bills, account registers and other property worth about ten lakh rupees to ashes.