Andhra boy set afire, kin blame sister’s stalker

According to police, the Class 10 student, a resident of Uppalavaripalam village, was going for tuition in the nearby Rajavolu village when the local residents heard his screams and saw him engulfed in flames.

A 15-year-old boy was allegedly thrashed and burnt alive in Andhra Pradesh’s Bapatla district by a 21-year-old man and three others for opposing his sister’s harassment, his family said in a police complaint on Friday.

A 15-year-old boy was allegedly thrashed and burnt alive in Andhra Pradesh’s Bapatla district by a 21-year-old man and three others (Agencies/Representative use)

According to police, the Class 10 student, a resident of Uppalavaripalam village, was going for tuition in the nearby Rajavolu village when the local residents heard his screams and saw him engulfed in flames.

“The villagers extinguished the fire and rushed him to the Guntur Government General Hospital. Although the victim could not speak clearly, he gave the name of Rajavolu resident Venkateshwara Reddy. He, however, did not specify if Reddy set on him fire or if others were involved. But we have detained Reddy and interrogating him,” Bapatla SP Vakul Jindal said, adding that the victim died of severe burn injuries

In her police complaint, the victim’s mother said that Reddy was stalking her 17-year-old daughter for two years and her son had opposed the harassment, police said. She added that Reddy recently threatened to kill her son, they added. She said that on Friday, Reddy and three others waylaid her son, poured petrol on him and set him on fire.

Police have registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 323(voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 354 D (stalking) and Section 8 of the Pocso Act, police officials familiar with the matter said.