The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Jilted man torches girl’s house

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 21, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Jilted man torches girl’s house

Staff Reporter

Raja was pestering the girl, a B.Com dropout, to marry him
He suffered burns while torching the main door and windows of the house

BANGALORE: A jilted man on Monday set on fire the house of a girl who had turned down his marriage proposal.

According to the police, the incident took place between 11 a.m. and noon at the HMT Layout house of the girl in Vidyaranyapura police station limits. Raja (30), a sub-contractor with a leading civil contractor, suffered burns on his foot while torching the main door and windows of the house, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Syed Ulfath Hussein told The Hindu.

The police said Raja was pestering the girl, a B.Com dropout, to marry him. She had turned down his proposal on grounds that they were “from different cultural backgrounds” and told him to stay away. However, Raja kept contacting her with a request that she should at least continue her friendship with him. But she had refused, Mr. Hussein said.

Around 11 a.m. Raja, also a resident of the same locality, came to her HMT Layout residence and knocked on the door. Her mother, who was in the kitchen, peeped through a window and noticed Raja standing in front of the house with a plastic bucket in his hand. She smelt petrol from the plastic bucket and asked Raja why he had brought it.

The suspicious mother did not open the door, so Raja poured petrol on the wooden door and torched it. He also doused the kitchen window with the fuel and set it on fire. As she opened the rear door and started screaming for help, Raja ran away, the officer said.

Policemen, who were on the beat in the area on a Cheetah patrol motorcycle, noticed Raja running in a hurry. A constable stopped Raja and asked him why he was limping. When he did not give a satisfactory reply, he was taken to the Vidyaranyapura police station, Mr. Hussein said.

On interrogation, Raja told the police what he did and said he had suffered burns on his foot while setting the door on fire. He has been admitted in Victoria Hospital and is out of danger, the police said.

The girl’s father had undergone open heart surgery a month ago and he is still under treatment. He is terribly shocked by the incident, Mr. Hussein said. The Vidyaranyapura police have registered a case.

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