Man found guilty of killing father and lodger in Shadwell blaze
A man has been convicted of killing his elderly father and a lodger after setting fire to their Shadwell flat earlier this year.
Aaron Bhasin, 53, of Chapman Street pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter at the Old Bailey yesterday.
He originally faced a double murder charge for the deaths of his 80-year-old father Ram Bhasin and lodger Sunil Koosuru, 29 but the judge accepted the lesser plea on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The emergency services were called to horrific scenes at the maisonette in Chapman Street, close to Shadwell DLR station, in the early hours of March 7.
Neighbours described how the two men desperately tried to escape from the property by hanging a cloth out of the window.
Neither managed to get out and both were pronounced dead at the scene.
A post-mortem examination later found that they had died from smoke inhalation.
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Mr Koosuru, an Indian national who was working in Fulham for an internet hosting company, was thought to have only moved to the maisonette a day before the fire.
Mr Bhasin will be sentenced on December 2.
