Bengaluru constable succumbs to burn injuries, tells police lover set him on fire

Sanjay was attached with the Basavanagudi police station and Rani was posted there as a Home Guard in 2020 and 2021. She later joined a private security agency as a security guard in Bellandur.

According to the police, Sanjay was in a relationship with Rani, who is married and has two children. They befriended each other in 2020 while working at Basavanagudi police station and the relationship continued even after she took on a new job. Rani used to visit Sanjay’s rented house and he used to visit her when her husband, a painter, was away, the police added.

On December 6, as per the police, Sanjay was at his residence after finishing his morning shift when Rani called him and asked him to come to her house around 6 pm. When they were together, she allegedly received a call from another man. When Sanjay questioned her about it, Rani said he was a friend. Sanjay forcibly took her phone and checked the caller’s details and messages and found that Rani had shared some intimate messages with another person, the police said.

A heated argument ensued and according to Sanjay’s statement to the police, Rani threatened to pour petrol on him and set him ablaze. Taking it as a challenge, Sanjay told the police, he bought petrol and dared her to do what she threatened. Rani took the bottle filled with petrol, poured it on his abdomen and back and set him on fire with a match stick, Sanjay told the police.

Rani doused the flames and later shifted Sanjay to the burns ward of Victoria Hospital on her two-wheeler. The doctors alerted the V V Puram police.

On December 7, Sanjay in his statement to the police, said he sustained burn injuries due to a faulty LPG gas stove. However, on December 19, he revised his statement, blaming Rani for the incident.

A police officer said that Rani has claimed that she did not set Sanjay on fire but he poured petrol on himself and set himself ablaze. She told the police that she was the one who doused the flames by pouring water and rushed him to hospital. Rani’s husband had gone to Sabarimala when the incident took place, an officer added.