BALLARI: A fire at the District Armed Reserve headquarters here has landed the Ballari police in an embarrassing situation, after a sub-inspector with its wireless wing was booked for “destroying public property and creating a nuisance”. The fire broke out in the DAR premises on Wednesday evening and a fire tender had to be pressed into service as a result of which the damage was minimised. The cause of the fire is what left the department red-faced, for it transpired that not only was one of their own men responsible for creating a law and order situation, the fire was the result of a fallout between the SI in question and a woman he reportedly is in an illegal affair with.
The incident got murkier when the police identified the woman as the wife of a constable. The SI and the woman have since been taken into custody. The two are said to be in an illicit relationship, and the fire incident was the result of differences that cropped up between them on that day. Following a complaint by Sardar, a DAR officer, an FIR was registered at the Gandhinagar Police Station.
The prime accused, identified as Kiran Samrat, a native of Kottur in Ballari district, is alleged to have been in the extramarital relationship with the constable’s wife, a mother of two children, since two years.
According to the police, Kiran Samrat brought the woman to the guest house to settle some differences. “The two fought after consuming liquor. The situation took an ugly turn when they hit each other, and the enraged woman set fire to the furniture in the guest house. A DAR staffer alerted the fire department and it was extinguished,” said a source in the police department.
Interestingly, a top police official told The New Indian Express that this was not the first time that the two had created a scene at the guest house. “On many occasions, they have fought openly. There was an instance when the woman pelted stones at the guest house. Sometimes they would settle their differences between themselves, at other times, they had to be restrained. Despite several warnings, they never mended their ways,” he said.
The sub-inspector and the woman, both from Kottur, studied in the same class, according to a senior police officer. “For whatever reason, they went their ways and got married but continued to see each other. Whenever the woman’s husband was out on duty, they would meet up. Many people knew of their relationship. Also, that they had gone together to Goa and some other places. The SI is also known to have threatened the constable against complaining to higher-ups,” the officer said.