(Trigger Warning: Descriptions of violence. Reader discretion advised.)
A tribal woman in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna, who was allegedly set ablaze by three persons on 2 July and suffered 80 percent burns, succumbed to her injuries on Friday, 8 July.
The accused allegedly attacked the 38-year-old woman over a land dispute in the district, local police told The Quint.
A video, purportedly shot by the accused, has gone viral on social media, in which the severely burnt 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 complained to the police that when he reached his farm in Dhanoria village on Saturday afternoon at around 2 pm, he found his wife lying there with burn injuries.
The police said that when the husband enquired, the victim identified the persons who set her on fire as Shyam, Hanumat, and Pratap.
While two of them have been arrested, a 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; something the accused weren’t happy about.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)