Man held for setting fiancee ablaze in Andhra village

Chowdavada (Andhra Pradesh), Aug 20 (IANS) In a shocking incident, a disgruntled man in Andhra Pradesh set his fiancee ablaze after pouring petrol over her while she was sleeping, at Chowdavada village in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district, an official said on Friday.

"At 3.07 a.m. on Friday, we received an SOS on the Disha app (women's protection app)," Vizianagaram Superintendent of Police, Deepika Patil, told IANS.

According to Patil, Rambabu, who was in a relationship with the woman, Ramulamma, set her ablaze when she was sleeping in the open along with her sister and nephew.

"The victim and the accused were in a relationship for the past two years. Eight months back, they had decided to get married. While the elders in the two families agreed to the marriage, for the past two months, the accused was not willing to marry the victim," said the SP.

Patil said that Rambabu was also counselled to marry Ramulamma by the elders.

"He has been levelling allegations against her, including suspecting her of fidelity. There were also allegations that he wanted dowry and so on. Based on these disputes, he was motivated to commit this crime," the officer said.

However, Patil assured that the victim is stable as of now, while Rambabu has been arrested and is being sent to judicial custody.

Though Ramulamma's seaside village is 25 km away from the nearest police station, the SP said the police managed to reach her in time and rushed her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has enquired about the incident and directed the concerned officials to provide proper treatment to the victim and take stringent action against the accused.

Reddy also instructed the officials to shift Ramulamma to Visakhapatnam for better treatment.

Deputy Chief Minister Pushpa Srivani and Municipal Minister Botcha Satyanarayana have visited the victim.

The Disha app of the state police department for women's protection has proven useful in recent times. There were two recent instances -- in Prakasam and East Godavari districts -- where the police successfully traced missing women using the app.

Across the state, senior police officers are conducting special campaigns to encourage women to download the app.