Keonjhar: Police have arrested a man on charges of attempting to burn his spouse and two minor daughters alive at Gambharia village in the district.

The accused, Chandra Sekhar Naik, 38, was not pulling on well with his spouse Luna Patra, 32. Deeply upset with the drinking habit of her husband, Luna is staying separately with two minor daughters in her parental house at Gambharia village in Sadar police limits. Married about 12 years ago, the woman has been staying with her parents for the past one year though she had not divorced Naik, the police said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday evening. Naik had allegedly tried to torch the house, where his spouse and children lived at Gambharia village.

Taking advantage of power cut at the village, Naik poured kerosene on the rear portion of the house and set it on fire.

However, Luna and other family members, who were out of the house, could spot the fire and doused it before it could spread, the police said. In the complaint lodged in this connection, the accused has been mentioned as fleeing the spot after committing the crime.

Naik had been detained and interrogated. He later confessed to the crime.

He was intent on taking revenge on his estranged wife and that drove him to set the house on fire with the intent of murder, said a police official.

Naik, booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 436 (setting house on fire) and 307 (attempt to murder), was produced in court and later remanded in jail custody after a local court dismissed his bail application.

Health department officials, however, are of the view that this kind of crime could be the result of mental sickness.

"Such acts come under mental illness. Persons suffering from such sickness often find the surroundings around him to be insecure. They resort to set things on fire in self-defence in a delirious state of mind," said a health department official.