Odisha teenager dies days after setting herself afire over stalker’s harassment

Doctors at the Rourkela hospital, where she was admitted on Saturday, said the 18-year-old suffered multiple organ failures triggered by the burn injuries

Updated on: Dec 8, 2025, 10:21:13 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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A teenager, who set herself on fire in Odisha’s Sundargarh district over alleged harassment from a 24-year-old stalker and suffered 92% burn injuries on late Friday, succumbed to her injuries on early Monday.

The teenager, a tribal, was a collage student. (Shutterstock)

Doctors at the Rourkela hospital, where she was admitted on Saturday, said the 18-year-old suffered multiple organ failures triggered by the burn injuries. The woman, a tribal, was a student at a Rajgangpur college.

Sundargarh Police superintendent Amritpal Kaur said the woman set herself afire late Friday at her home after speaking to a male friend.

Police cited a preliminary probe and said the 24-year-old, a porter, had harassed the teenager again in a passenger bus shortly before she set herself afire. “The accused had been stalking and harassing her for the last two years, but the harassment had worsened,” said Kaur.

The teenager’s mother said her daughter set herself afire when the rest of the family was sleeping. “When we woke up to her screams, we found her in flames and rushed her to the hospital,” she said.

On Sunday, state health minister Mukesh Mahaling said the state government would try to airlift her to Bhubaneswar or Delhi once her condition improved.

In July, a 20-year-old student at a Balasore college died two days after she set herself on fire on campus over inaction on her sexual harassment complaint against a head of a department. A 15-year-old girl in Puri set herself afire and died on August 2 at a Delhi hospital. Police concluded it was a case of suicide driven by mental stress.

On August 6, a 19-year-old college student in Kendrapara immolated herself after her ex-boyfriend threatened to leak intimate photos online. A 35-year-old woman in Dhenkanal sustained over 50% burn injuries after attempting self-immolation on August 10 over her family’s struggle to repay loans.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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