Staff Reporter :
A doctor couple have been burnt severely in a fire which reportedly erupted from hand sanitizer at their residence in Hatirpul area of the city.
The fire broke out early Wednesday, according to relatives of the victims.
The victims have been identified as Rajib Bhattacharjee (36), a Neurosurgeon of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and his wife Anushua Bhattacharjee, physician of a private medical college in the capital.
They are now undergoing treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.
Dr Samanta Lal Sen, Chief Coordinator of the institute, said Rajib was put on life support with 87 percent burns while his wife sustained with 20 percent burn.
Rajib’s friend Dr Sudip Dey told the media that they came to know that Rajib was smoking when he was pouring hand sanitiser in a smaller bottle. Suddenly, he caught fire and it spread. His wife sustained burns as she tired to douse the fire to save Rajib.
The couple’s only daughter Rajashree Bhattacharjee (5) was at her grandfather’s house in Cumilla during the incident, Sudip said.
Russel Sikder, Duty Officer of Fire Service, said actually they were not informed about such fire.
Rajib’s cousin Tapu Bhattacharjee said, there were living four members including doctor couple, daughter and Rajib’s father. Their daughter Rajshree was sent to their grandmother residence in Comilla three weeks ago.
They got married about seven years ago. But their relation were not cordial. We don’t think it’s just an accident. We think there may be other reasons, Tapu Bhattacharjee added .
Poritosh Chandra, Officer in-Charge (OC) of Kalabagan Police Station confirmed the matter and said that after the incident we visited the spot and talked with the neighbors about the fire incident. But we don’t have knowledge what Rajib cousin Tapu claimed, OC added.
