Mysuru: “I begged my husband to save me and take me to hospital after he poured kerosene over me and set me on fire. But he locked the room and left,” recounted 22- year -old Mahadevi , tears welling up in her eyes as she breathed her last at the KR Hospital here Wednesday night. The young girl, who was married to Nagesh of Karadi Mole village in Chamarajnagar taluk, told the police as she lay dying in her hospital bed that she had lived a nightmare for four years before he set her on fire Tuesday night.
“It was hell on earth living with my husband for four years,” she said in the video recording of her statement by the police. Going by Mahadevi’s parents, Puttathayamma and Mahadevshetty of Karalapura village in Nanjangud taluk, Nagesh always told her that he didn’t like her and suspected her fidelity. Unable to bear the torture and his demands for dowry, she left him two years ago. But 20 days ago, she went back to live with him following the intervention of a women’s organisation in Nanjangud.
But the reconciliation did not turn out well as he reportedly quarelled with her Tuesday night , asking her why she had come back.
Seeing Mahadevi inform the women’s organisation about his treatment, Nagesh grew worried about the NGO members visiting him at home, and so set her on fire in anger, the parents claimed. Mahadevi’s body was handed over to her parents after an autopsy at the mortuary of KR hospital on Thursday.
