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Six­ty-year-old Bachan Sam­lal — who was par­tial­ly paral­ysed by a stroke — was un­able to es­cape as flames tore through his home at Sand Hill Trace, Bar­rack­pore, on Sun­day.

De­spite at­tempts by neigh­bours and rel­a­tives to ex­tin­guish the blaze, the en­tire wood­en three-bed­room house was de­stroyed, and his charred re­mains were found near the ru­ins of his bed.

Sam­lal, a fa­ther of sev­en and grand­fa­ther of 11, lived alone, but one of his daugh­ters would some­times stay with him oc­ca­sion­al­ly.