Mumbai man sets wife on fire, keeps her inside home for six days

Police said he often fought with his wife as he wished to marry someone else

A 28-year-old man allegedly first set his wife ablaze in their home in Malwani on September 1 and then kept her inside for six days to treat with help from local doctors. It was only a week later, when the woman’s sister-in-law and her kids came to see her that the crime was unearthed.

Picture for representation

Babu Khan, a local water supplier, got into a fight with his wife Anjum Khan, a mother of two – a boy aged seven and a girl aged three – at home on September 1. In a fit of rage, Babu poured kerosene on her and set her on fire. Anjum suffered burns on her back and hips but Babu did not rush her to the hospital and even the neighbours did not hear any screams. What the neighbours saw the next day was a doctor enter the couple’s home at Ambedkar Chawl.

After Babu told a neighbour that Anjum was ill, the neighbour told her brother Khalid Hashmi about it. “I got a call from one of the neighbours about she being sick. I sent my wife and two of our sisters to see her that night and that’s when I came to know what she has gone through. I got her admitted in the hospital the very next day,” Hashmi told HT.

Hashmi also approached the Malwani police on September 8. “We have registered a case of attempt to murder and arrested Babu,” said Deepak Phatangare, senior inspector at Malwani police station.

Police investigations revealed that Babu had been assaulting her for two years and officials said he used to often get in fights with Anjum as he wanted to marry another woman. “She was burnt on September 1. He kept her at home taking help of local doctors, who also did not inform the police. Even when we registered the case, he [Babu] fearlessly visited the hospital twice saying that he cannot be touched,” the relative said.

Anjum, who was admitted at a civic hospital on September 8, was discharged on Monday.