The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : `Harassed' housewife kills herself, son

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 23, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`Harassed' housewife kills herself, son

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, SEPT. 22. Unable to bear the harassment allegedly meted out by her mother-in-law and her co-sister, a housewife, Amaravati (28), committed suicide and tried to kill her three children at Gooty in the district today. While one of her sons succumbed in the Government Hospital at Gooty, another one was battling for his life in the General Hospital here.

Meagre earnings

According to information reaching here and the police, Amaravati was married to Ramudu, a barber, eight years ago and they had three children -- Samyukta (6), Kalyan (4) and Karthik (2). Her mother-in-law, Kambagiramma, and her co-sister, Nagaratnamma, used to pester her over her husband's meagre earnings stating that it was not sufficient even for their food. They were all living in a joint family.

As a result, Amaravati and Ramudu along with their children were living separately in the same house for the last few weeks. However, the pestering from the mother-in-law and co-sister did not stop. Vexed with such harassment, Amaravati took to the extreme step.

She did not send her daughter to school today. But when the girl suspected something wrong she escaped and saved her life, when Amaravati was about to pour kerosene on Samyukta.

Son battling for life

The woman immediately doused herself and her two sons with kerosene and torched themselves. While Amaravati died on the spot, Karthik succumbed to burns at the Government Hospital in Gooty and Kalyan was battling for life at Anantapur. The Gooty CI, Padmakar Reddy, visited the site of the incident.

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