Disgruntled employees set fire to a private firm

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Disgruntled over pending salaries, two former employees of a private firm in the city poured petrol and set fire to the office. According to the police, the incident had taken place on September 27 at the office of a real estate firm in Puttenahalli Police Station limits.

However the matter came to light much later. The accused were identified as Rahul Pujari and Lawson Peter John, who were said to be working as the Area Sales Manager and Regional Sales Manager before they were sacked by the company heads.

It was learnt that the real estate company was run by Umashankar and Roopa. A complaint filed with the jurisdictional police stated that Pujari and John were fired for not reaching their sales targets set by the company.

The complaint alleged that the two accused would often call Roopa over the phone to demand their pending salaries. However when Roopa and Umashankar denied holding any such dues towards them, the duo got angry and started abusing them.

On September 27, around 10:30 am, the two accused allegedly barged into the office and asked one of the female housekeeping staff to go outside. The two then poured petrol inside the office and set it on fire.

The police said that several workstations and switch boards inside the office got destroyed in the fire. The loss was later estimated to be Rs 11 lakh, the police added.

Following the incident, the two accused fled the scene and have not been seen since then. Based on the complaint, a case has been taken up by the police and efforts are on to nab the absconding accused and investigation is underway