VADODARA: A 23-year-old information technology (IT) engineer from Ahmedabad set his sedan on fire in Gujarat's Vadodra after his girlfriend did not come to meet him, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place in the narrow lane behind Bombay Shopping Centre near RC Dutt Road in the city.

The man first broke the windshield and glass windows of his car with stones. Later, he got garbage from nearby and dumped it on the car for setting it ablaze. The techie also pelted stones at passersby and the people standing there.

As the entire car was engulfed in flames, locals informed the police control room and the fire brigade. Believing that he had set someone else’s car on fire, police reached there to arrest him, but after talking to him, they learned that it was his own car. Policemen wanted to take the man with them to Sayajigunj police station but he refused to go. He finally agreed to go with them to an auto-rickshaw.

The man refused to speak to the cops at the police station. The police called his father to come to the city from Ahmedabad. When his father reached the police station, the man finally opened. The engineer said that he was angry as his girlfriend did not come to meet him. However, he did not give details about his girlfriend to either cops or his father.

"We let him leave as his father did not want to register any case. It was any way their personal problem," said inspector SG Solanki of Sayajigunj police station. He added that although the man is an engineer, his father said that he was not doing any work.