Man, daughter die in TN as their e-bike bursts in flames

Chennai, March 26 (IANS) In a tragic incident in Tamil Nadu's Vellore, a man and his daughter died after their e-bike went up in flames suffocating them to death in their asbestos sheet-laden house in the wee hours on Saturday.

Police said that M. Duraivarma, (49), who was running a photo studio near Tollgate, Vellore bought a new e-bike a few days ago. He plugged the charger of his bike into an old socket in the entrance of his house and went to sleep on Friday night.

An electrical short circuit led to the e-bike going up in flames and smoke engulfing the residence.

His 13-year-old daughter Mohana Preethi, a student of Class 8, was also found dead along with Duraivarma at the house. Police said that the socket might be an old one with less voltage capacity to charge an e-bike.

Local people said that they found the e-bike in flames and smoke engulfing the house around 1 a.m. They alerted the police and Duraivarma's sister who stays a few houses away. However, local people could not put out the fire as it was thick and had spread to a nearby petrol bike.

A unit of firefighters reached the spot from Vellore and put out the flames and local people entered the house breaking open the front door.

The father-daughter duo was found dead with minor injuries. Police said that they assume the father and daughter died due to suffocation as there were no burn injuries on the bodies.

Duraivarma had lost his wife in 2013 and he was living with his son and daughter. After dinner, his son went to stay with a close relative while father and daughter retired for the day at their residence when the tragedy struck.

Local people said that his daughter had visited her father after several months as she was staying at a relative's place at Thiruvannamalai for getting better education.