The school office after the fire. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, May 5: A fire in the office of Birsa High School in Falakata in the early hours today destroyed important documents and six computers. The school authorities have been charged with sabotage to conceal alleged embezzlement of funds.

The Trinamul Congress filed an FIR at Falakata police station against the school authorities, alleging foul play after engineers from the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited inspected the debris and ruled out short-circuit as the cause for the blaze.

About 2.15am, local people noticed smoke coming out of the ground-floor office of the school and swiftly swung into action.

They woke up the guard, Nripen Barman, who was on the first floor of the building. The police and the fire brigade in Dhupguri, about 38km away, were informed.

The fire engine that arrived at the spot an hour later doused the flames and prevented the fire from spreading to other parts of the building.

The secretary of the school managing committee, Amar Sarkar, said all documents of the 43-year-old institution and records like the provident fund ledger and the service books of the 24 teachers were destroyed in the fire. The flames devoured six computers also.

“I am worried about the incident after I was told by the power officials that the fire was not caused by a short-circuit. We have asked the police to find out the exact cause of the blaze. It will be very difficult to retrieve all the documents again,” Sarkar said.

While classes were suspended, students from Classes V to IX could not sit for their unit tests that were supposed to begin today. It was also not certain when the tests would commence, the secretary said.

The headmaster of the school, Dilip Chakrabarty, could not be contacted.

Accusing the school authorities of intentionally causing the fire, Abul Hossain, the president of the Trinamul Congress Falakata branch committee, alleged that the management was involved in embezzlement of funds meant for the development of the institution. “It is nothing but a sabotage with the intention of destroying documents that proved the complicity of the authorities in financial irregularities. The school management has not audited its accounts for years. We have filed an FIR demanding immediate investigation into the cause of the fire. We have also met the block development officer and told him to take up the matter with all seriousness,” Hossain said.

Abdul Latif, the father of a Class VII student, also expressed anguish at the fire. “This incident should be properly investigated as it is strange that only the office was burnt down,” he said.

The additional superintendent of police, Alipurduar, Anup Jaiswal, said an inquiry would be carried out. “After we get the reports from the power department and the fire brigade we will probe the case,” he said.