New Delhi: A woman and man set themselves on fire outside Supreme Court on Monday, August 16. Both suffered severe burn injuries and are being treated currently at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi, the Indian Express has reported.
Before self-immolating, both the man and woman put out a Facebook live video in which the woman accused Uttar Pradesh’s Bahujan Samaj party MP Atul Rai of rape and said justice is being denied to her as police are colluding with the MP.
“They have issued a non-bailable warrant against me. The judge has summoned me. They are all a part of nexus… Me and my witness were trapped,” she claimed.
“Now, you (Uttar Pradesh Police) can file false cases and non-bailable warrants against us…This is Uttar Pradesh’s judicial system,” claimed the man before dousing themselves with kerosene and set themselves on fire.
According to police, the woman hails from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and had filed a complaint against Rai accusing him of rape in June 2019. He was sent to jail in connection with the case. However, in November 2020, Rai’s brother lodged a complaint in Varanasi against the woman accusing her of forging her documents and changing her date of birth. A case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy was registered against her.
On August 2, a local court in Varanasi issued a non-bailable warrant against her after police told the court that she was not traceable despite several raids.
With this as background, the man and woman set themselves ablaze in front of the Supreme Court as onlookers, security staff and police rushed to them to douse the flames, but they collapsed to the ground. There is no information on how the man and woman are related.
According to Deepak Yadav, DCP (New Delhi), police rushed to the spot with blankets to save them and to douse the fire, which they lit up using kerosene oil. They were rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in a police van. While the woman sustained 85% burn injuries, the man suffered 65% burns. Their situation is said to be critical.
The Delhi Police said they have been able to identify the whereabouts of the duo and had informed their families about the incident. The information was also passed onto Uttar Pradesh Police as well.
“Both are unfit for statement. We will have to ask UP police about their details,” said a police officer.
In November last year when Rai’s brother lodged a complaint against the woman accusing her of forging her documents, he claimed that the mark sheet she had produced while registering an FIR against Rai mentioned her date of birth as June 10. On the other hand, he referred to a 2015 incident where the woman in question accused a student leader of molestation and the documents she had used at the time to lodge the complaint mentioned her date of birth as March 10.
Meanwhile, Prashanth Kumar, Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said, “We have filed a chargesheet against MP Atul Rai in the rape case and he has been in jail since 2019. A sub-inspector and deputy SP were suspended for misconduct in the case earlier. The incident about the woman has come to our notice… we are waiting for a report from the Delhi Police or will definitely take appropriate action based on the video.”