Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, an officer was set ablaze in her office on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Monday afternoon.
The incident took place in Abdullaprumet Mandal, RangaReddy district. The accused, identified as Suresh, entered tehsildar Vijaya Reddy’s office on the pretext of talking to her. He carried kerosene with him while he stepped into the office. Minutes later, the officer came running out of the office while she was on fire.
The accused spoke to the officer for about 20 minutes before setting her ablaze, according to the local police. The police officers said that a land dispute case being heard by the high court could be a reason for the extreme step taken by the accused. He has been taken into custody and is being interrogated.
“Investigation is underway to find out the exact details as of why the accused took the extreme step. We will also find out how he managed to get into a government office and commit such an atrocity in the broad day light. There would have been so many people around,” Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said.
"We will take the trial to fast track court and press for a capital punishment to the accused. Meanwhile, we are also trying to find out if there's someone else behind the attack who must have asked him to commit the crime," Bhagwat added.
The incident qualifies as a murder case and investigation will be done at the earliest to determine the magnitude of the punishment, he added. The accused also suffered about 50% burns and was taken to a private hospital in Hayathnagar for treatment. The deceased’s body has been shifted to government-run Osmania General Hospital for an autopsy.
In a gruesome video, that has gone viral, the female officer can be seen getting completely burnt before the people around could respond. Two staffers from the office, including a driver, also suffered burns while trying to save the tehsildar.
Local Revenue office employees took to protest condemning the incident and demanding a stringent action on the culprit.
“Government has ordered for an inquiry into the incident. Once the details are out, stringent action will be taken. This is not about a man or a woman being attacked; a government employee was set ablaze in the broad daylight. Highly condemnable incident,” Telangana Cabinet Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy told media on Monday.
This is the third incident in the last six months that a woman government employee has been attacked. In the last few months, two forest officers were attacked by locals. In the first incident, a female forest officer was beaten with bamboo sticks by a mob led by a ruling party TRS leader.
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