Video: Man sets Bangladeshi restaurant on fire in New York over chicken biryani order

A man in New York City was arrested after he was caught on camera setting a Bangladeshi restaurant on fire after they botched up his order of chicken biryani.

Choephel Norbu, 49, was held after CCTV footage purportedly showed him emptying a can of gasoline just outside the Ittadi Garden and Grill in Queens and setting it ablaze.

“I was very drunk. I bought chicken biryani. They didn’t give me chicken biryani. I was mad, and I threw it out,” Norbu was quoted by the New York Post as saying.


The surveillance video from early morning of next day, October 2, showed the man wait outside till nobody was passing by before splashing the liquid and lighting the place up. As the front portion of the restaurant burst into flames he could be seen fleeing the place with his shoes on fire.

Nobody was injured in the fire, reports said, except for Norbu himself.

The official Instagram handle of the New York Fire Department said Norbu has been charged with arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.

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It was not clear what made the man angry over the chicken biryani order, though the report quoted a waitress as saying he blew his top and threw it in their face.

Reports said it took two weeks to arrest him and that he was out on the streets the very next day without bail.