Woman burnt alive while lighting ‘Puja’ lamp

Kendrapara: In a freak mishap, a 23-year-old dalit woman died of burns today evening hours as the room where she was offering puja caught fire possibly from a burning lamp.

The incident, according to police, occurred at Harijansahi locality under Nikirai police station jurisdiction. The victim has been identified as Suchitra Mallick.

The fire spread fast and the mud-walled house was gutted in the inferno. None of the victim’s family members were in the house when the mishap took place. After seeing the blazing fire, people living in the neighbourhood tried to rescue the victim trapped in the inferno. By the time, the locals could retrieve her from the fire she had already died, said locals.

Inspector-in-charge, Nikirai police station, Pramod Kumar Lenka said, “The victim was received dead at the district headquarters hospital. The body has been sent for post-mortem. From preliminary investigation, it has been found that the death was caused due to accidental fire. However the matter is being investigated further to ascertain the exact cause of the fire. An unnatural death case has been registered in this connection.”