Hridesh Shaw sits in the debris of his home that was allegedly set ablaze by his landlord early on Thursday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Kashinath Jaiswal had a hawk’s eye for disputed homes to be turned into highrises. Residents of Kazipara, next to Shibpur Police Lines, said on Thursday that he would spot a plot of contention, swoop on it, muscle his way through any resistance and vacate it for a realty rollout.

The motive of the alleged “murder and arson” at 276 GT Road, hours before day broke on February 7, lay in the refusal of slum-dwellers at the address to bow to pressure from the 43-year-old Jaiswal.

A resident of adjoining 275 GT Road, the promoter had bought the four-cottah plot seven years ago but failed to vacate it in the face of popular resistance from residents of the 12 rooms living there for decades.

A building plan for a four-storeyed structure on the plot had been sanctioned by the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) in 2006.

“Kashinath Jaiswal, the owner of 276 GT Road, was given the building sanction,” said municipal commissioner Durga Das Goswami.

Ram Bahadur Shaw, 50, and Hridesh Shaw, 18, were at the forefront of Operation Resistance against Jaiswal’s alleged strong-arm tactics.

Flashpoint was reached two months ago when Jaiswal allegedly disconnected the electricity lines to the slums. Hridesh, a student of Class XI, was the most vocal in the protests by the residents.

On Thursday morning, police arrested Jaiswal for allegedly using an LPG cylinder to fill the one-room home of the Shaws with inflammable material and then setting it ablaze.

Kewala Devi, 40, was burnt to death while husband Ram Bahadur and daughter Deepali, 13, suffered severe burns. Younger son Dilesh, 15, got away with minor injuries.

Jaiswal’s wife Leena rubbished the tenants’ charge against her husband. “He never threatened anybody. In fact he told them that he would give one room to everybody if they let him construct the building. No pressure was ever created on any of them to vacate the plot,” Leena told Metro on Thursday evening.

“When he was sleeping at home the entire night, how could he have gone and done such a thing? My husband is innocent,” she cried, sitting in the drawing room of 275 GT Road, a five-minute drive from Vidyasagar Setu.

Jaiswal’s tenants, however, insisted that they were under “constant threat” from the landlord to vacate the plot and allow the highrise to come up. “He said that as owner of the plot, he could do what he wanted with it,” said Haridev Shaw, a resident of one of the 12 rooms.

Along with Jaiswal, cops arrested Amarnath Prasad, 47, a milk-seller at one of the makeshift shops at 276 GT Road. Prasad was labelled “Jaiswal’s man” in the locality.

The nature of the alleged killing has highlighted the desperation for land holdings in a township bursting at the seams. The real-estate boom is most pronounced in the areas bordering the Setu.

“This is not a stray incident where slums have been demolished to make way for highrises by means foul rather than fair. With urban land prices shooting up and each apartment being sold with a huge profit margin, promoters are becoming desperate to make a killing,” observed sociologist Prasanta Roy.

This is almost a pattern now for people with money and muscle power, he warned.