Man tries to immolate self outside PM house
Two men chose the Republic Day on Thursday to attempt self-immolation -- one outside the prime minister's house in Delhi and the other in Rajasthan.
Two men chose the Republic Day on Thursday to attempt self-immolation -- one outside the prime minister's house in Delhi and the other in Rajasthan -- while a third man who had threatened to do so because he was unemployed backed off when he got his job back.
Policemen standing on guard outside the 7 Race Course Road residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prevented an unidentified man from setting himself on fire and arrested him. His reasons for doing so were not immediately known.
"We do not know why the man tried to immolate himself but we managed to stop him," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Anita Roy.
The incidents came a day after a Patiala man died after setting himself on fire to protest the plight of pushcart vendors like him.
The repeated telecast of the Patiala tragedy prompted Raees Khan, resident of a village in Jhalawar district, some 300 km from Jaipur to emulate the act. He sustained severe burn injuries, police said.
Khan, 26, poured kerosene and set himself ablaze in the same manner as the Patiala man had done. Hearing Khan's loud screams, his family members and residents of nearby houses rushed to his rescue and took him to a hospital in Jhalawar.
Khan told police he decided to attempt the act after watching the Patiala incident on TV. He tried it late in the wee hours so as to avoid any resistance from his family.
In Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, Arunodaya Mohanty, who set himself on fire last year protesting his retrenchment and threatened to repeat his act this year, Thursday got back his job.
Mohanty was one of the 21 employees retrenched from the state Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Department in 2004.
Protesting the move, Mohanty poured kerosene and set himself on fire when Governor Rameswar Thakur was on his way back to Raj Bhavan after attending the Republic Day parade last year. He sustained burn injuries.
Mohanty, who joined the service in 1975, threatened to repeat the act this year alleging he was retrenched illegally. But the state government invited him for a discussion on Wednesday and informed him the retrenchment order had been withdrawn.
Mohanty was all smiles on Thursday - and the policemen who had mounted surveillance on him also expressed relief.
"We are relieved," a senior district police official said.
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