2 cops set woman ablaze, suspended

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, July 6

Two policemen were suspended for setting a woman ablaze at a police station in Barabanki. The woman with serious burn injuries has been admitted to the trauma centre of a hospital here in Lucknow.

She told news channels that Station House Officer Rai Saheb Yadav and sub inspector Akhilesh set her on fire when she declined an indecent proposal made to her by the duo.

The 40-year-old woman had gone to the police station to enquire about her husband who had been detained by the police. When she pleaded with the police to release her husband, who she claimed was innocent, the policemen made the proposal. Her refusal angered them who doused her with kerosene and set her ablaze, she told reporters.

Lucknow Range IG Zaki Ahmad has suspended the two policemen and ordered an enquiry.

On June 1, a Shahjahanpur journalist Jagendra Singh was burnt in a similar fashion reportedly by policemen and the henchmen of minister Ram Murti Verma. He later succumbed to his burn injuries at a hospital here on June 8.

His sons have approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI enquiry into their father’s death.