PURNEA, June 10 -- A fire broke out at the office of the District Education Officer (DEO) in Saharsa on Tuesday morning, allegedly due to a short circuit. Although the blaze was brought under control within an hour, the conference hall was completely damaged. The fire erupted on the second floor, following which officials alerted the fire station. Two fire brigade teams soon arrived and managed to douse the flames within an hour. However, by then, furniture, an LED television, and some documents had been destroyed, people aware of the details said. "The damage is being assessed, but prima facie it appears to be over Rs.4 lakh," a staff member at the DEO office said, adding that he was not the competent authority to speak to the media regarding the incident. While the official phone of DEO Hemchandra remained switched off, District Programme Officer (Accounts) Mithilesh Kumar told HT over the phone that the conference hall had suffered extensive damage. Police Inspector Ramesh Kumar, who also reached the spot shortly after the fire broke out, said, "The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, but prima facie it appears to have originated due to a short circuit." He added that a probe was underway Thieves broke into the Bhagalpur-based office of local JD(U) MP Ajay Kumar Mandal and decamped with valuables, including a service pistol of MP's security guard. Thieves also took away security cameras installed in the office to conceal their identity, police said. Criminals made off with a service pistol of a security guard, computers, essential files and the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) to destroy evidence. "The matter came into light on Monday when parliamentarian's personal secretary Gaurav Kumar reached the office in connection with some work," police said....