The Hindu : New Delhi News : Restaurant owner succumbs to burn injuries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Restaurant owner succumbs to burn injuries

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 16. A restaurant owner who sustained burn injuries outside the house of a woman acquaintance under highly mysterious circumstances at Rajouri Garden in West Delhi on Sunday night succumbed to his injuries in hospital on Monday. A panel of doctors has been constituted to conduct post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death.

According to the police, 42-year-old Jitender Kumar, owner of Vintage restaurant in Paschim Vihar, had met the woman when she had come for dinner with her family to the restaurant about an year ago. Over a period of time, Jitender and the woman's family became close and often visited each other. On one occasion, the woman's family had reportedly given Rs. 35,000 to Jitender to pay for his wife's operation. Jitender had later returned the money.

During the same period, Jitender also began attempting to come close to the woman. However, the woman objected to his moves. This went on for quite some time and things finally came to a head on Sunday. The woman, along with her husband and Jitender, approached Rajouri Garden police station and got a written assurance from him that he would not harass her any more.

However, around midnight, Jitender reached the woman's house in Rajouri Garden and began banging at the door. The police said the neighbours heard Jitender calling out to the woman, saying that he would set himself afire if she did not open the door.

Around 2 a.m., some one saw Jitender lying outside the woman's house with burn injuries. He was rushed to a hospital and the police were informed. He succumbed to his injuries on Monday morning. In his dying declaration, Jitender told the doctors that he had set himself afire. However, in order to rule out any foul play, the police have decided to get the post-mortem on the body conducted by a panel of doctors. A case would be registered according to the findings of the post-mortem report.

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