Aurangabad district magistrate Abhay Kumar Singh (speaking on phone) at Bhasanbigha village on Monday. Picture by Suman

Gaya, Aug. 22: Five members of a family, including husband, wife and three children aged below five years, were burnt alive while they were asleep in their hut at Bhasanbigha village under Haspura police station of Aurangabad district in small hours today.

The police said the incident could be an accident or a case of self-immolation. They said they are investigating the case keeping in mind both the angles.

Aurangabad district administration spokesperson Virendra Kumar Shukla told The Telegraph over phone that district magistrate Abhay Kumar Singh and superintendent of police (SP) Siddhartha Mohan Jain visited the village with other officials of the district administration and took stock of the situation.

The district magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident by Daudnagar sub-divisional officer Kamal Nayan.

According to reports, the deceased, 32-year-old Rambachan Rajvanshi worked as a farm labourer and lived with his family in a hut. The Aurangabad district administration had allotted Rs 30,000 for construction of a house under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) around eight months back.

However, Rambachan could withdraw only Rs 10,000, while one Vinod Rajvanshi of the same village allegedly withdrew the rest of the amount by forging Rambachan’s signature.

At a Gram Vikas Shivir organised in Aurangabad on August 8 this year, Rambachan came to know about this fact. What prompted him to take this extreme step was the scare of being jailed as the IAY amount was allot-ted under his name, sources said.

Aurangabad superintendent of police Siddhartha Mohan Jain, however, said at a press meet organised by the district magistrate today that prima facie the incident seems to be a case of accident.

Sources said Rambachan, his wife Sunita Devi, children Rani Kumari (5), Maharani Kumari (3) and Abhishek (2) were sleeping on a jute-woven carpet in the 8x8ft room and an earthen lamp was burning near the carpet.

“In all probability, the jute carpet might have caught fire from the lamp which led to such a mishap,” the SP said. The carpet of the room was found partially burnt.

In another room, two other children and Rajvanshi’s mother, was sleeping but the fire could not reach them.

The district magistrate announced to provide compensation of Rs 7,500 (Rs 1,500 for each deceased) to the kin of dead under Kabeer Anteyashti Yojana and Rs 10,000 under family welfare scheme to the kin.

Besides, the Red Cross Society also provided a cheque of Rs 10,000 to the kin of the dead.

The district magistrate also ordered to conduct the post-mortem of the bodies at Daudnagar.

A medical team led by civil surgeon Parshuram Bharti conducted the post-mortem. “Proper action will be taken after the post-mortem and viscera report,” the district magistrate said.

Meanwhile, a case would also be lodged with Haspura police station against Vinod for allegedly withdrawing Rs 20,000 from the account of Rambachan allotted under IAY, said Haspura station house officer Surendra Sahni.