Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A man was burnt to death while two others were injured when an oil tanker parked near a dhaba suddenly caught fire in Seoni district, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place on the intervening night of August 26-27 at Kaudia on Seoni-Balaghat Road. Fire brigade personnel later brought the blaze under control.
Barghat SDO (police) Lalit Gathre said a petrol-diesel tanker parked near a dhaba suddenly burst into flames. Pankaj Patle (23) who was in one of the rooms at the dhaba was burnt to death while his brother Rahul (27) and tanker driver Arvind Parihar (45) were injured.
The injured have been admitted at a local hospital while the body was handed over to his relatives on Wednesday morning after post-mortem, the police said. SDOP said the cause of the fire was not clear and police were conducting an investigation after registering a case.
The probe will also try to ascertain if the incident occurred during an attempt to pilferage fuel from the tanker, he stated. Due to the fire incident, movement of vehicles on the Seoni-Balaghat state highway was disrupted for about three hours.
According to the police, the tanker, belonging to an oil PSU, was filled with about 14,000 litres of highly flammable fuel and was on way to Balaghat from Jabalpur.
