MP Tribal Woman Fights For Life After Being Set Ablaze Over Land Dispute, 2 Held

A video of the woman covered in smoke, purportedly shot by the accused, went viral on social media.

Guna Superintendent of Police Pankaj Shrivastava updated the media with the details of the case. 

(Photo: Special Arrangement/ The Quint)

A tribal woman in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna was set ablaze allegedly by three persons on Saturday, 2 July, over a land dispute in Madhya Pradesh's Guna district, the local police said.

Two of the three accused have been arrested, while the woman, 38-year-old Rampyari Sahariya, is critical and admitted to a hospital in Bhopal for treatment, the Guna Superintendent of Police Pankaj Shrivastava said.

A video, purportedly shot by the accused, has gone viral on social media, in which the charred woman can be seen crying in pain, with smoke all around her. The person shooting the video can be heard saying, "We will make a video. She has set herself on fire."

The woman's husband, Arjun Saharia, complained to police that when he reached his farm in Dhanoria village on Saturday afternoon around 2 pm, he found his wife lying there with burn injuries.

The police said that when the husband inquired, the victim identified the persons who set her on fire as Shyam, Hanumat, and Pratap.

While two of them have been arrested, search is ongoing for the third accused, the police said. They have been identified as Hanumat, Pratap, and Shyam Kirar.

The complainant told the police that the accused had forcibly usurped his land, which was freed by the local administration in May this year and handed over to him, which they weren’t happy about.