The burnt room where the siblings were found dead. (Gour Sharma)

Durgapur, Jan. 25: A tailor in Asansol town who used to abuse his wife for bearing him three daughters allegedly burnt to death two of them today.

The youngest, who was with her mother at her maternal grandfather’s house, survived.

Mohammad Faiyaz’s wife had fled home with their three daughters four months ago, but 10-year-old Tanasum and seven-year-old Farhana returned when their father went to Dhanbad and said they should not miss school for so long.

Early this morning, when neighbours saw smoke and rushed to the rented ground-floor room where the family lived, they found it locked from outside. They broke open the door and found the children’s charred bodies.

Some of the neighbours claimed that they saw Faiyaz cycling away while they were rushing towards the three-story house where he lived.

His wife Seema Parvin told police he was a habitual drinker and that she had left for her father’s house in Dhanbad four months ago following frequent abuse for giving birth to three girls in a row.

“My husband blamed me for our not having a son and often beat me up. Four months ago, I left for my father’s house as I couldn’t take his accusations and the beatings any more. I took my three daughters (the youngest is three years old) with me,” Seema said as she broke down in tears at the Asansol Subdivisional Hospital, where the bodies of her two daughters were brought for post-mortem.

Ten days ago, Faiyaz went to his in-laws’ house and brought Tanasum and Farhana back. Seema let them go possibly because Faiyaz had never been harsh on them before. “All his anger was directed at me,” she said.

Police are looking for Faiyaz. Seema had not filed an FIR against her husband till late tonight but Asansol (south) officer-in-charge Mrityunjoy Banerjee said the police could file a suo motu case as the circumstantial evidence suggested murder.

“We think Faiyaz throttled his daughters and then set their bed on fire. We have to investigate more to find out how the fire was set,” added Banerjee.

An officer said two things suggested Faiyaz was the murderer. “First, we have come to know that he beat his wife up regularly for bearing him three daughters. Second, the neighbours found the rented room locked from outside.”

The neighbours saw smoke coming out of cracks in a window and smelt burning flesh around 4.30am. “We rushed to the room and found it locked. The windows were shut but not bolted from inside. We opened one and saw the room was in flames. We believe Faiyaz murdered his daughters. Why else would he flee?” asked Jamil Akhtar, 40, a neighbour.

The neighbours tried to put out the flames with buckets of water. A fire tender arrived within 20 minutes and extinguished the blaze.

Zahir Akhtar, the owner of the house, said: “Faiyaz used to have a house of his own. He blew his money on alcohol. Five years ago, he sold his house and rented a room in mine.”

Seema said her husband earned Rs 1,500 a month working at a local tailoring shop.