Kanyi Okeke
22 year old Annu Devi, was breastfeeding her baby daughter at her home in Jharkhand, India, (bottom left) when her husband soaked both of them in kerosene and set them alight. Devi and her baby were found still alive the next morning and were rushed to hospital (top left and right, the baby being held by her mother-in-law) but died from their injuries. Devi’s husband had apparently become aggressive after she gave birth to a girl,
Police in eastern Indian state of Jharkhand said 22-year-old Annu Devi was set ablaze while she was breastfeeding her daughter. They have now arrested her husband, Gunjan Masat, who allegedly poured fuel over Devi and her baby daughter before setting them on fire.
According to Raghuni Rana, Devi’s father, the couple were happily married for more than a year, but problems started after Ms Devi gave birth to a baby girl.
Mr Rana told police:
‘They wanted a son, but didn’t realize that giving birth to a girl was not Devi’s fault.
‘They started harassing and torturing her till things reached this pass when they decided to end her life.’
‘Now they were demanding a TV set and a motorcycle. I had already given them two bighas (1.6 acres) of land in dowry.’
To pass off her murder as an accident, the accused made the badly burned Devi sit beside a fireplace and placed a water container over it.
Early in the morning on January 30, a local spotted Ms Devi and her daughter lying in a courtyard at the house, still alive despite suffering 90 per cent burns.
The mother-daughter duo were rushed to the nearest hospital but the doctors declared them dead on arrival.
