Bhubaneswar: Two people are on the run after setting a 14-year old girl on fire in a village in Odisha, police said Monday.
The incident took place at Kharinashi village in the district of Kendrapada, about 150km from state capital Bhubaneswar, on Sunday.
Abhinab Dalua, inspector in charge of Mahakalpada police station, said one of the accused persons wanted to marry the elder sister of the victim. He was enraged when the family solemnised her marriage elsewhere.
The man, from the same village, had allegedly started threatening the woman’s family and her in-laws ever since. The village committee was scheduled to hold a meeting Wednesday to take action against him.
The man, along with one of his friends, invited the woman’s younger sister out on Sunday before he dragged her inside a house, poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze.
The teenager who studies in class seven has been shifted to Sriram Chandra Bhanja Medical college hospital at Cuttack after her condition deteriorated. She has sustained about 70 per cent burn injuries, Dalua said.
A manhunt has been launched to nab the culprits. It is unknown if the girl was raped before being put on fire by the offenders, he said.
