Woman dies of burns, family attacks in-laws’ #Ghaziabad house

GHAZIABAD: Family members of a 35-year-old woman, who succumbed to burn injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjang Hospital on Wednesday night, attacked the Ghaziabad house of the woman’s in-laws on Thursday, demanding the police charge them with murder.

The protestors stoned the house breaking window panes, and also blocked Meerut Road for half an hour with the hearse carrying the dead body. The woman, Anshika Garg, had suffered critical burn injuries while at her in-laws’ house in Lohia Nagar on May 24. Afterwards, she was taken to Safdarjung Hospital, where she died. On May 25, an FIR had been lodged by the Sihani Gate police station under sections 498A (cruelty) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, and relevant sections of the Dowry Act.

Anshika’s husband Atul Garg (38), a trader, was named in the FIR along with his father Mahesh and mother Saroj. Following Anshika’s death, her father Mahavir Prasad on Thursday demanded police charge the accused with murder as well. Ghaziabad Police said according to statements they had recorded before and after the FIR was lodged, Anshika had mentioned that she had been burnt accidentally.

“In both statements, Anshika had said she had got burnt accidentally, while cooking. A can of oil had toppled from an overhead shelf and doused her saree, which had caught fire from the LPG stove on which she was cooking. In her statements she has also mentioned that while her mother-in-law was in the bathroom at that time, her sister-in-law rushed to save her but could do so only after she was burnt to a large extent,” SI Bhupender Singh, who recorded her statement, told TOI.

Till Thursday evening, Ghaziabad Police had not invoked murder charges against Atul and his parents, as desired by Prasad. “We are waiting for the autopsy report. Section 302 of the IPC will be invoked against them, if there is anything suspicious,” a senior police officer told TOI.