A fire gutted the newly-renovated meeting hall on the third floor of the Hazaribagh municipal corporation’s administrative block, thus sending down the drain nearly Rs 40 lakhs that was spent on renovating it.

The fire started around 11 in the morning, even as people gathered smelt foul play behind it. Close to the meeting hall is a record room and chances are high that it also got gutted. Locals opine that this fire was intentional in order to hide the misdeeds of people regarding the tenders issued from here.

Two fire engines were called, and after two to three hours of effort, the fire was brought under control. It took considerable time to douse the flames as the meeting hall was renovated with wood work. Officials claimed that Rs 40 lakh was used to renovate the meeting hall, and now all of it has gone up in smoke. They, however, confirmed that all documents were safe.

Mayor Tirkey and deputy mayor Rajkumar Lal also reached the spot and took stock of the situation.

Smelling foul play, JMM leader Mohammad Salim tweeted the matter to chief minister Hemant Soren demanding action. CPM district secretary Ganesh Citu, too, wrote a letter to deputy commissioner Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh demanding an inquiry. Senior congress leader R C Prasad Mehta and mahanagar president of the party termed this as criminal conspiracy demanding a high level inquiry.