Hyderabad/Bengaluru: A student hailing from Hyderabad and studying in a medical college in Kolar, Karnataka, was set on fire by unknown attackers on Tuesday night.
The victim, Kameshwara Sai Prasad, a native of Kalwakurthy, Mahbubnagar, has sustained 68 per cent burns, and is battling for life at the ICU in St John’s Medical College and Hospital in Bengaluru.
Prasad is a fourth year student of Devraj Urs Medical College. His parents, V. Lakshmana Sharma and V. Jyothi, are advocates in the city and Mahbubnagar and stay near Shenoy Nursing Home in East Marredpally. Sharma is the president of the bar association at Kalwakurthy.
Attackers flee with gold chain
Kameshwara Sai Prasad, who was set on fire by unknown attackers on Tuesday night, told the police that two assailants came on a motorbike around 10.30 pm and attacked him when he was taking a walk after dinner in the Tamka area of Kolar.
The assailants poured petrol on him and set him on fire, before fleeing with his gold chain. Kameshwara had been staying in a rented accommodation in Tamka for the last several years, the police said.
Passersby, who noticed Kameshwar on fire and crying for help, doused the flames and rushed him to Bengaluru. He was admitted at St John’s around 2.15 am on Wednesday.
The doctors said that around 40 per cent of burns are deep.
At the hospital, he was seen asking, “I have to write my exam tomorrow; why did you admit me in the hospital?” Other than attack by robbers, the Karnataka police are probing several angles including allegations that some students from Anantapur had attacked Prasad.
B. Amarendar, an advocate who worked with Sharma said, “Kamesh studied up to Intermediate in the city and went to Karnataka to pursue MBBS after writing KCET.” He said that Prasad had had some differences with students of the same college.”
