Another man sets himself on fire in UP

LUCKNOW, JANUARY 18: The UP police were again in the news today with a 44-year-old man, Jayaram Makhija, staging a fiery protest against a...

LUCKNOW, JANUARY 18: The UP police were again in the news today with a 44-year-old man, Jayaram Makhija, staging a fiery protest against alleged harassment of his family after his SOS to the city SSP reportedly brought no respite. At 9.30 am, he allegedly set himself on fire near his house in Arya Nagar. He was rushed to the King George Medical College with 70 per cent burns and his condition is reported to be critical.

Medical Superintendent Dr Gurmit Singh told The Indian Express: 8220;We are trying our best to save him, but nothing can be said at the moment. With 70 per cent burns if he survives, it will be a miracle.8221;

The incident comes just a week after 25-year-old Manjit Singh Sodhi immolated himself in front of the Vidhan Sabha in the presence of hundreds of onlookers and policemen in protest against police atrocities on his family members. The Crime Branch-CID is probing the incident.

According to Inspector Ved Pal Singh of Naka Hindola police station, Jayaram, who works as a waiter at a local restaurant, had left his house on the pretext of fetching a pan masala pouch. Instead, he went to a kerosene depot from where he picked up a can, poured the contents on himself and set himself on fire.

The inspector said the police were interrogating Jayaram8217;s wife, Sarita, in connection with a bicycle theft. He said two boys who used to visit her house had stolen the bicycle of the son of washerman Mewa Lal, Guddu, of the same locality.

But Jayaram8217;s wife had a different version. Denying the involvement of herself or anyone else visiting her house in the theft, she said the police had already recovered the bicycle from one Rajesh, but were still harassing her. She complained that a police team, led by the diwan of the police station, Gudri Singh Yadav, visited her house daily and heaped abuses on her, her young daughter Arati and sons Kamal and Bimal.

Sarita8217;s eldest son, Kamal, said his parents were feeling so humiliated and frustrated that they had gone to the Vidhan Sabha yesterday to immolate themselves, but changed their mind.

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But Sarita was unwilling to believe that her husband could have attempted self-immolation. She alleged a conspiracy by the washerman and his son, in connivance with the police.

She said the washerman8217;s family harboured a grudge against her because on her advice, the owner of the house in which she is a tenant told the washerman8217;s daughter, who lives in the same house, to vacate it. That was the reason why a false case had been filed against her, she alleged.

She said her husband had, in a memorandum submitted to the city SSP last Saturday, appealed to look into their persecution by the police, but it fell on deaf ears.