Assistant Jailor’s house in Cuddalore set on fire

Family members escape unhurt, police suspect it to be pre-planned attack

Unidentified persons set fire to the house of an Assistant Jailor attached to the Cuddalore Central Prison at M. Pudur in Cuddalore in the early hours of Sunday.

According to police, the incident took place at around 3 a.m. in the jailors’ quarters. The family members of Manikandan, who works as an Assistant Jailor in the Cuddalore Central Prison at Kepparmalai, were sleeping inside the house when unidentified persons poured a bottle containing an inflammable liquid through the window grill in the kitchen in the house and set it on fire.

Mr. Manikandan was on medical leave and had left for Thanjavur while his parents, wife, and two children were at the house at the Jail quarters in M. Pudur. Seeing the fire, the family members, who were sleeping in a room in the house, raised an alarm and ran out of the house.

The family members doused the fire that had gutted the kitchen with the help of other jail staff in the quarters. The family also found two bottles of Molotov cocktail outside the house.

Police suspect that the incident was pre-planned. A number of mobile phones were seized from inmates including a history-sheeter lodged in the Cuddalore Central Prison recently. The Cuddalore Old Town police are investigating.