HYDERABAD: A 27-year-old music band operator who, on August 2, had doused himself with petrol and set himself ablaze before the Malakpet police station succumbed to burns while undergoing treatment in Osmania general hospital (OGH) in the early hours of Wednesday.
According to family members of the victim D. Solanki Vijay had approached Malakpet police for the third time to lodge a complaint against one Mohammed Farooq for harassing and threatening his wife Solonki Bhavani on her mobile phone.
“I accompanied Vijay and two others to lodge a complaint against Farooq, who was harassing Bhavani for three months. When the police ignored his pleas, Vijay removed petrol from his bike, poured it on his body and lit it,” said Ram Kumar, Vijay’s friend. The police did not even bother to rush him to the hospital, Kumar said.
The Solanki family resides in Pardibasti, Musarambagh,
“My husband died because of mental torture from Farooq’s harassment and the manner police did not attend to his complaint. Had the police taken action against Farooq, my husband would have been alive,” said Bhavani.
“We have arrested Farooq, registered a case of abetment to suicide under section 306 of IPC and prevention of SC ST Atrocities Act,” said G. Shyam Sunder, ACP.
“We had registered a case under 309 IPC (attempt to suicide) against Vijay as we suspected that he was under the influence of ganja. We did not expect that he would resort to such an extreme step. We arranged for an ambulance to rush him to OGH,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress activists, who staged a dharna holding Malakpet police responsible for Vijay’s death, were taken into preventive custody and released later.
Police handed over Vijay's body to his family members after post-mortem.
