On the 10th of June 2026, a devastating fire tore through a prominent government building located in the Alipore area of West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata. The catastrophic incident resulted in the absolute destruction of over 4,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). These vital devices included the electronic voting units deployed across 10 separate constituencies during the state's recent legislative assembly elections. In the wake of the unusual disaster, state authorities have officially raised strong suspicions of internal sabotage to explain the event.

High-Rise Inferno Defies Logic: Officials Suspect Foulay Play As Flames Skip Mid-Level Floors

The destructive blaze broke out within the 9–10 storey New Administrative Building, which serves as the headquarters for the South 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad. According to an investigative report published by the Times of India, smoke and flames were initially detected on the third floor of the facility. This specific floor houses the National Informatics Centre (NIC) conference room as well as the administrative offices allocated to several high-ranking leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), including the recently arrested Karmadhakshya Jahangir Khan and his colleague Bahirul Islam.

After originating on either the second or third floor, the fire rapidly spread upward, catching the fifth and seventh floors. However, the trajectory of the disaster followed a highly irregular pattern. The intermediary floors of the multi-storey complex suffered little to no physical damage. Even more bewildering to investigators, the flames mysteriously scaled the building to strike the eighth and ninth floors long after the primary fire below had been safely contained and the building's electrical power grid had been completely disconnected by emergency personnel.

The timeline of the emergency reveals an alarming progression. The initial fire erupted at approximately 9:50 am. First responders and local firefighters fought the blaze vigorously, successfully containing it between 11:40 am and 11:50 am. Yet, the crisis was far from over. At approximately 12:30 pm, a sudden and violent second phase erupted as flames rekindled high above, completely engulfing the ninth and tenth floors of the complex.

Citing senior officials within the fire department, the Times of India emphasized that the second wave of the inferno was highly "unusual." On-site emergency officials expressed deep bafflement regarding how a fire could independently migrate from the fourth floor all the way up to the ninth and tenth floors while leaving the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors virtually untouched by the flames.

This baffling spatial gap immediately triggered severe suspicions among law enforcement. It pointed to the possibility that a deliberate, calculated attempt had been made to obliterate critical materials locked away on the topmost levels. The precise pattern of destruction—beginning directly in the offices of TMC figures like Jahangir Khan and leaping strictly to the specific security zones where sensitive electoral hardware was stockpiled—strongly indicates an act of internal sabotage.

Crucially, the building's ninth floor housed the state's mid-day meal administrative section, while the tenth floor contained the heavily fortified Alipore Sadar strong room. This top-floor area is a maximum-security zone designed specifically to store the EVMs used during elections in the competitive assembly constituencies of Kasba, Jadavpur, Behala East, Behala West, Metiabruz, and Tollygunge.

The sweeping inferno left a trail of immense administrative damage, consuming numerous official files, irreplaceable government records, and core computer networks. The highly erratic path of the fire prompted the Minister of State for the Department of Fire and Emergency, Kaushik Chaudhary, to rush to the Alipore Police Court complex to conduct a meticulous, on-spot inspection of the ruined infrastructure.

“The cause of the sudden fire on that floor is suspicious. EVMs were stored there. Offices for the Sarva Shiksha Mission, Mid-Day Meal and Horticulture departments were located there, while election offices occupied the 8th and 9th floors. Approximately 4,000 EVMs belonging to 10 Assembly constituencies have been destroyed…It does not appear to be a normal fire. We are examining whether there was any sabotage,” Minister Chaudhary stated transparently following his initial assessment.

In response to these findings, the local police swiftly registered a formal criminal case at the Alipore Police Station. The case has been filed under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections 326(g) and 3(5), read in conjunction with Section 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.

To ensure an uncompromised investigation, a high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been assembled to spearhead the probe. The elite investigative team features Assistant Commissioner of Police Sukhendu Mukhopadhyay, Inspector Hirak Dalapati of the Detective Department, Inspector Arpan Das, and Sub-Inspector Suman Ghosh. Professional forensic teams have also been deployed to the site to conduct detailed chemical and physical examinations of the debris.

Concurrently, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has voiced intense anxiety regarding the scale of the damage suffered by the voting infrastructure on the tenth floor.

“EVMs have been stored in the building. The fire may have caused some damage. We will have to inspect each EVM to assess the impact. The police are investigating the incident, and the district magistrate will submit a report to us,” a senior ECI official noted in an initial statement detailing their planned response.

The timing of the disaster has only added to the intense public scrutiny. The fire at the New Administrative Building—which operates under the direct administrative control of the TMC-led Zilla Parishad—broke out exactly two days after influential TMC leader Jahangir Khan was apprehended by law enforcement at the India-Nepal border during an active attempt to flee the country. Khan had previously stood as the official TMC candidate for the Falta assembly seat; however, widespread irregularities during the initial voting process forced authorities to order a complete re-poll. Following the declaration of a re-election, Jahangir Khan unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy entirely from the political field.

Widely recognized as a powerful, close aide to former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her influential nephew Abhishek Banerjee, Jahangir Khan is currently balancing an array of severe legal battles. He faces multiple criminal cases involving grave charges such as attempted murder, systemic extortion, and the incitement of violent riots. Furthermore, he is the subject of an active money laundering investigation managed by the central Enforcement Directorate.

At present, the ruined administrative hub has been entirely cordoned off. Public movement through the premises has been strictly restricted as forensic teams trace the exact physical path of the fire across the separate levels. To protect the integrity of the crime scene, local police have heavily increased physical surveillance and static security checkpoints around the perimeter of the complex.

Blame Game Erupts: Political Tensions Flank the Investigation into Guarded Electoral Artifacts

Amid the unfolding investigation and mounting structural suspicions, the TMC leadership has attempted to shift the narrative. The ruling party has publicly insinuated that the fire and the resulting loss of 4,000 EVMs represented a “calculated attempt to make crucial evidence vanish after tampering with Democracy itself?”

However, independent observers note a stark contrast when the structural realities of the situation are examined side-by-side. The Alipore Zilla Parishad administration is directly controlled and staffed by the TMC, and the broader South 24 Parganas district remains an absolute political stronghold for Abhishek Banerjee. When these administrative facts are juxtaposed with the highly selective path of the fire—which ignited on the exact floor holding the executive offices of TMC leaders, bypassed neutral mid-level floors, and climbed directly to the tightly monitored top floors housing the vulnerable voting machines—a profoundly different explanation begins to emerge. The definitive truth behind the Alipore inferno will only be established once the Special Investigation Team completes its technical inquiry and presents its final reports to the public.