Gujarat woman set on fire over her puppy’s name

A woman was seriously injured after she was set on fire allegedly by one of her neighbours who was angry over the similarity between the name of her puppy and the nickname of the wife of one of the attackers in Gujarat.

A woman was seriously injured after she was set on fire allegedly by one of her neighbours who was angry over the similarity between the name of her puppy and the nickname of the wife of one of the attackers in Gujarat, police said on Tuesday.

Bharwad accused Sarvaiya of deliberately naming the puppy after his wife, Gujarat police said.

The incident was reported from Palitana town in the Bhavnagar district on Monday afternoon. The victim, Neetaben Sarvaiya (35), suffered severe burn injuries. She is currently undergoing treatment at the government hospital in Bhavnagar, a Palitana town police station official said. Sarvaiya was at her home with her youngest son at the time of the incident. Her husband and two children had gone out, he said. Sarvaiya’s neighbour Surabhai Bharwad and five others barged into her house on Monday afternoon. They objected to Sarvaiya naming her puppy as ‘Sonu’, which is the nickname of Bharwad’s wife, as per the FIR.

Bharwad accused Sarvaiya of deliberately naming the puppy after his wife, police said. In her statement to the police, Sarvaiya said that Bharwad abused her but she tried to avoid him and others. As she entered the kitchen, three persons followed her. One of them poured kerosene from the container on Sarvaiya and set her on fire lighting a matchstick, the police said.

Police registered an FIR against six persons under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for the attempt to murder, house trespassing, insult etc.

Nobody is arrested so far, police said.