Hyderabad: The craze of a five-year-old for matchsticks ended in her death in Jawaharnagar. A lighted matchstick fell on Divya, and her clothes caught fire leaving her with burns all over the body. She later died in hospital. K. Divya, 5, an UKG student of Noble High School, was the eldest daughter of business couple Govind and Kavitha who migrated from Rajasthan four years ago and settled at Chennapuram. Govind owned a provision store in Jawaharnagar. Kavitha was a housewife.
On Saturday, Govind went to Bengaluru to attend a relative’s wedding and Kavitha and the kids were at home. On Sunday after lunch the younger kid was sleeping and Divya was playing on the verandah with a matchbox. Meanwhile, Kavitha went to a nearby shop to purchase milk. As she returned she heard the younger child crying. When she rushed inside she found Divya totally burnt, and sitting just a few feet away from the bed where the small child was sleeping.
Kavitha started screaming. Neighbours rushed to the spot and the girl was taken to a private hospital. From there she was shifted to Gandhi Hospital where she died on Monday evening. Police said the child was playing with the matchbox, and there were a few burnt out matchsticks on the verandah where she was playing. “She suffered around 90 per cent burns. The dress which she wore was made of nylon and it caught fire immediately. We are checking for other clues,” Jawahar-nagar SI Md Abdul Hayyum said. Police registered a suspicious death case and handed over the body to Divya’s family after post-mortem.
