Suicide pact: Woman succumbs to burns

MALKANGIRI: A woman died of burn injuries while the condition of her acquaintance, Saurav Das, is stated to be stable in the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack. He was admitted to the medical with 80 per cent burns on Tuesday.The widow, Sukhalata Dash (35), died on way to district headquarters hospital on Monday morning. Sukhalata was an assistant teacher in a Podia-based SC/ST Department-managed school while Saurav works with an NGO, Harmony. The two were found in a critical condition in her government quarter on the school premises early Monday morning by school headmaster Prana Krushna Behera.The woman, in her statement to the police minutes before death, said both of them had decided to commit suicide and hence doused themselves with kerosene. Saurav set her on fire and he too caught the flames, said Malkangiri IIC RK Pati. Sukhalata’s husband died two years back and she is survived by her only daughter, he said.Podia police have started probing  the case following an FIR lodged by Mausumi Tripathy, a relative of Sukhalata.