Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Sunday ordered a high-level administrative inquiry into the burning alive of six members of a family in Raghopur block in Vaishali district, which falls in the constituency of leader of the opposition Rabri Devi.

"A high-level administrative probe will be conducted into the incident. The inquiry will also go into the role of the officer-in-charge of the Raghopur police station, besides those of block development officer and circle officer. Those found guilty will be severely punished," Nitish said after meeting the relatives of the deceased at Rampur-Shyamchand village, the site of the gory incident, about 40 km from the district headquarters.

• Six of family burnt alive in Bihar

The OC Nasriuddin Khan has already been suspended.

Kumar said if any link of the OC with the killers was confirmed, the government would dismiss him from the service.

Nitish, accompanied by Revenue Minister Ramnath Thakur, said the burning alive of six members of an extremely backward class family after locking them in a room of a thached house was 'gruesome' and it has 'sullied' the image of the state.

"Those who committed this crime are inhuman," he said.

Nitish said the kin of the aggrieved family would be adequately compensated besides providing a dwelling under the Indira Awas Yojna.

Rashtriya Janata Dal president and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi are expected to visit the village later in the day.

A woman and her five children were burnt alive in Rampur-Shyamchand village for apparently refusing to withdraw a complaint of theft of a bufallo in September 2005.