By IANS,
Patna : A woman, who was allegedly raped and then set on fire by a civic body chief in Bihar, died after battling for life for six days, a police official said Saturday.
The victim, Asha Devi, in her 30s, suffered nearly 80 percent burns. She died at a nursing home in Siliguri in neighbouring West Bengal.
She was admitted in a critical condition in the nursing home last week after she was set on fire by Navin Yadav, Thakurganj Nagar Panchayat chief in Kishanganj district, about 350 km from the state capital here.
She was raped and set on fire by Yadav, says the FIR lodged in the case. A case has been lodged against Yadav, said Superintendent of Police M.R. Naik.
He later surrendered to the police and was remanded to 14 days judicial custody by Kishanganj chief judicial magistrate Monday.
The victim, in her dying declaration before a magistrate, blamed Yadav and charged him with burning her, police sources said.
The victim, a resident of station road in Thakurganj and a mother of two, was heard crying for help after Yadav allegedly set her ablaze in her room. She told her relatives that he had poured kerosene on her before setting her on fire, police sources said.
Her family members told the police that in the past Yadav had often demanded sexual favours from the victim and had threatened her.
“He threatened her on Sunday too, but she refused. Angered by her resistance, he forcibly entered her room and tried to burn her,” a relative said.
The victim’s husband died four years ago. After his death, the woman looked after a printing business started by her husband to earn a living.