Four arraigned in October restaurant blaze

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Four people were arraigned in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday for their purported roles in an arson in October at a Boardman restaurant.

Arraigned before Magistrate Timothy Welsh after being secretly indicted by a grand jury Thursday were Rajendra Ingle, 40, of Streetsboro, two counts of arson and theft; Sonia Bhatia, 24, of Carter Circle in Boardman, two counts of arson, insurance fraud and theft; and arraigned on two counts of arson were Christopher Reynolds, 21, of Frederick Drive and Jessie Winphrie, 22, of Woodside Avenue.

The Oct. 8 fire destroyed the Spice of India restaurant, 8398 Market St.

The grand jury found that Bhatia and Ingle made false claims in order to defraud insurance investigators, and Reynolds and Winphrie set the fire, and Bhatia and Ingle also helped to cause the fire, according to the indictments.

The restaurant was entangled in litigation. Ingle was given possession of the restaurant by the owner of the building, Tzarnas Family Co. LLC, in late 2012.

In its lawsuit against Ingle, the company claimed that Ingle had not paid rent for occupying the building in August and September but had not moved out of the building. Annual rent was $24,000, payable in 12 installments of $2,000 each, according to the suit.

According to common pleas court records, that suit still is pending.

All four were taken into custody and held in the county jail until their arraignments.