Woman sets self, daughters on fire

A superstitious woman allegedly charred her two daughters before setting herself on fire in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on Monday afternoon. All the three were critically burned and succumbed to their injuries in two different hospitals.

A superstitious woman allegedly charred her two daughters before setting herself on fire in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on Monday afternoon. All the three were critically burned and succumbed to their injuries in two different hospitals.

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The deceased have been identified as Ramila and her two daughters — Jaya, 5, and Geeta, 3. Police have termed it a case of mass suicide and therefore, no case has been registered.

Meenu Choudhary, deputy commissioner of police (northwest) said that Ramila was disturbed for past two to three days. “It has been learnt that for past a couple of days, she used to talk about supernatural phenomenon with her neighbours. It a clear case of suicide,” said Choudhary.

Ramila lived with her husband Dinesh Kumar and daughters in H block of Jahangirpuri. On Monday at around 8am, Kumar who works in a packaging factory in Azadpur market, left for his workplace when Ramila locked herself in a room with her daughters and took the extreme step.

“She poured kerosene oil on her daughters and set them on fire before repeating the same on herself. Spotting smoke and flame coming out of Kumar’s house, a neighbour made a PCR call. In the meantime, other neighbours rescued the victims and rushed them to Babu Jag Jivan Ram Hospital,” said a senior police officer.

“While Ramila and her younger daughter succumbed to their injuries in the hospital, Geeta who had suffered 80% burns, was shifted to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital. She succumbed during treatment early on Tuesday morning,” the officer added.

According to senior officers, the family members of the deceased affirmed that Ramila was a superstitious woman who had strong belief in hocus-pocus. Even the family members are in shock over Ramila’s extreme step.