A picture of a woman sitting next to the lifeless body of her daughter while holding a placard with a message demanding justice for the victim from Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar is doing the rounds on social media. 50-year-old Sahmoona Khatoon lost her daughter to burn injuries. Gulnaaz, the 20-year old victim, was burnt alive by two men in Bihar’s Vaishali district.
Sahmoona Khatoon is traumatised and still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that her daughter is no more. When News18 spoke to her, her first sentence was “Babu ko mitti laga di (I have buried my daughter).”
The attackers live in the same colony and their houses are hardly 100 metres away from the victim’s. “Gulnaaz was burnt alive by Satish Kumar and his friend Chandan after Satish’s marriage proposal was rejected by her. He tried harassing her many times. We went to the police station to file a complaint against him but the SHO of Chandpura police station didn’t listen to anything and told us to solve the matter in the panchayat,” some relatives of the victim said.
After not getting any help from the police, Gulnaaz’s mother went to Satish’s house. “I went to talk to Satish’s family. His parents assured me that they would talk to their son and nothing would happen again. I trusted their words but never thought their assurance would end up like this,” Sahmoona Khatoon said.
The crime occurred on October 30 when Gulnaaz went out to dump some garbage around 5 pm. The accused allegedly poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze. 75 per cent burnt, Gulnaaz, who was soon to get married, lost the battle for life on November 15.
The family is accusing the police and administration of inaction. Gulnaaz’s brother Asif said, “Without our consent, police admitted Gulnaaz into a private hospital. She didn’t get proper treatment there. We requested them to shift her into a government hospital but no one listened to us. She was admitted for 10 days but police didn’t come to see her condition, not even once”.
She was admitted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital in the state capital following social media outrage after a video of Gulnaaz went viral on social media. It was recorded before her death. In her statement, she was accusing Satish Kumar of burning her alive.
The Bihar administration suspended Chandpura SHO Vishnudev Dubey for dereliction of duty. Police arrested Chandan Kumar on November 16. Now they are searching for the main accused, Satish Kumar.
Vaishali’s superintendent of police Manish Kumar said, “We have arrested Chandan and will soon catch Satish too. All the aspects are being investigated by the police. Those who are involved in the heinous crime will be sent behind bars.”
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