By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : A man in an Orissa village set on fire five people, including his wife and five-year-old daughter, after a quarrel, the police said Tuesday.
The man is absconding and the victims are battling for life with severe burn injuries.
Manoranjan Gochayat, a resident of Balikuti village in Balasore district, allegedly set five of his relatives ablaze at his in-laws’ house in nearby Paschimbad village Sunday night. Balasore is around 200 km from here.
His wife Sanju, 22, had gone to her parents’ house with her daughter last week. Gochayat had recently visited them and asked his wife to come away with him immediately.
When she refused, he beat her up and left for his village. Gochayat, however, returned Sunday.
“When everyone was asleep, he poured petrol and kerosene on them and set them on fire and fled,” Trilochan Sethi, a police officer, told IANS.
Sanju, his daughter Devi, two sisters-in-law and brother-in-law have sustained over 50 percent burn injuries, Sethi said.