DUSHANBE, October 28, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Owner of one of shops on the Korvon market in Dushanbe has been detained on suspicion of having committed arson in the sop Prestige on October 19., according to the Ministry of Interior (MoI).

The source at a MoI said that the detainee had confessed to committing arson.  “He said he had set a fire on the shop in order to conceal embezzlement of funds received from one of suppliers,” the source said.        

As it had been reported earlier, the fire broke out on the Korvon market on October 19 at 4:45 p.m.  Twelve fire crews participated in putting out the fire and it was extinguished in an hour.  The fire damaged several departments of the shop Prestige.  The damage caused by the fire was estimated at 50,000 somoni. 

It is not the first fire on the Korvon market.  We will recall that a large fire broke out at Dushanbe’s largest merchandise market, Korvon, on August 13.  The fire that broke out at 1:00 a.m. destroyed an area of 2,100 square meters.  Fortunately, no casualties were reported.  Investigation established that the August 13 fire had also been caused by arson.