HYDERABAD, Oct 13: In a bizarre incident, a woman and her tormentor were both killed when the woman managed to drag the man in the fire he had set her in her house on Monday night in Vijayawada town in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.
The police said while the 24-year old woman, working as a nurse in a COVID-19 care centre in Vijayawada, died on the spot, the man who had sustained over 80 per cent burns, succumbed to injuries at the government general hospital in Guntur on Tuesday morning.
According to the police, the woman had been in love with the man for the last four years, but a few months ago, she wanted to end the relationship with him. “Yet, the man had been stalking her and harassing her to marry him,” the police said.
On October 5, the woman lodged a complaint with the police in Vijayawada alleging that the man was continuing to harass her though she had been spurning his love. The stalker was called to the police station and warned against stalking her. After he gave an undertaking that he would not trouble her any more, the woman withdrew the complaint.
But the man apparently had not given up. On Monday night, when the woman returned to her room nearer to the Covid-19 care centre where she was working, the stalker appeared again and argued with her for filing the police complaint against him.
“It was evident that he came prepared to kill her. During the course of argument, he took out a bottle of petrol he had brought with him, poured it over her and set her ablaze,” the police said.
But the burning woman would not let go him. The woman caught hold of him tightly so that he could not escape after killing her. Listening to their cries, neighbours rushed there and separated them before dousing the fire. The police said. While the woman died on the spot, the stalker was severely injured and was rushed to the government hospital in Guntur after initial treatment in Vijayawada. “He died in the early hours of Tuesday,” the police said.
Initially the police had booked a murder case against the stalker but after his death it was scaled down to section 174 (death by suicide) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the police said.
(Manas Dasgupta)