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Woman attacked by stalker dies in Bihar
PATNA / MUZAFFARPUR: A 23-year-old woman, who was set on fire in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur earlier this month, died in Patna on Monday. She was being treated at the city’s
PATNA / MUZAFFARPUR: A 23-year-old woman, who was set on fire in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur earlier this month, died in Patna on Monday. She was being treated at the city’s Apollo Burn Hospital after sustaining 95% burn injuries.
The victim’s brother-in-law said the woman died around 11.40pm on Monday.
She was set on fire by Raja Rai, the son of a land dealer, who poured kerosene on her after she resisted his attempt to rape her on December 7. Rai was arrested soon after the incident, and his accomplice, Mukesh Kumar, a week later.
The deceased woman’s brother-in-law (her sister’s husband) demanded security for family members. He also demanded that his wife, an auxiliary nursing midwife (ANM) at Bairiya in Sitamarhi, be transferred to Muzaffarpur so that she could be with her two minor children, witnesses in the case.
The victim’s family members met the state’s principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar, on Monday afternoon and requested that the woman be shifted to a specialised hospital in New Delhi.
Kumar said then that the government would constitute a medical board to see if this was required.
According to a complaint lodged at the Ahiyapur police station in Muzaffarpur, the woman was with her minor niece and nephew when their mother was on night duty at a primary health centre at the time the incident happened. Rai, her neighbour, and Kumar barged in and tried to sexually assault her but failed. Irked, they set her on fire.
Rai was stalking the woman for some time, her mother said. Out of fear, she stopped attending coaching classes and did not pursue studies after completing her intermediate, the mother added.
Violent protests broke out on the streets of Patna and Muzaffarpur after the death was announced.
Residents of Kumhrar in the state capital blocked a road and disrupted traffic for about seven hours, demanding death penalty for the accused.
The protestors also disrupted movement of trains by blocking a railway track for more than an hour.
The protestors also demanded that chief minister, Nitish Kumar, meet them and the SSP, Muzaffarpur, be suspended.
The road blockade was lifted only after the ASP of Patna, Manish Kumar, assured the protestors that the accused would be punished.
In Muzaffarpur, too, people’s anger spilled on to the roads with residents Bairiya, Ahiyapur, Nazirpur, Khabra and Panitanki Chowk coming out to express their anguish and anger over the woman’s death.
Villagers of Nazirpur, the woman’s village, decried the lackadaisical attitude of the government . “Had she been shifted to New Delhi for higher quality treatment on time, she could have been saved,” said Munnilal Choudhary, a resident of Nazirpur.
