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Man Charged In Deadly Oak Forest Fire

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jan 1, 2008 7:45PM

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Subhash Chander has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of intentional homicide of an unborn child in the Oak Forest fire that killed his pregnant daughter Monika Rani, son-in-law Rajesh Kumar, and grandson Vansh. Prosecutors say Chander set the fire because he believed his son-in-law was from a lower caste than his daughter, and that he didn't approve of the marriage. The fire also destroyed a 36-unit building and has left dozens of people homeless.

Chander says he was bringing his daughter some gasoline when he and Kumar got in a shoving match, and the gasoline spilled. But according to Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Robert Milan,

The evidence shows that based on what was said in court today that it's more likely that there was no shoving match; that while they were asleep, this was poured outside the doorway and this fire was ignited.

[S-T, Trib, CBS 2]

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