A major fire broke out in a store room of Police Bhavan in Civil Lines that houses the office of City Police Commissioner, on Monday. Important files related to the Welfare Department of City Police were gutted in the incident. The joint office of the Welfare Department and the Accounts Department is located on the third floor of the newly constructed six-storey Police Bhavan. The office has a separate store room with steel cupboards for the files and cash. Rs four lakh cash was kept in a locker in the same room. In-charge of the office Avanti Deshmukh inspected and locked the room on Friday.

On Monday afternoon, a retired employee came to the office. He suspected smoke in the room and alerted Deshmukh and others. She opened the store room only to see files afire. She raised an alarm. Officials of police and Fire Departments rushed to the spot. The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes. A bunch of important files were gutted in the incident. The cash was safely moved out from the office. According to officials of the Fire Department, they received a Fire Call at 3 pm. Two fire tenders were rushed to the spot but they were not used in the operation. Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar said that Forensic experts were called for testing of carbon to ascertain the reason behind the fire. As the news of the fire spread in the Police Bhavan, the employees came out of their offices and gathered at galleries.