Woman set on fire for falling in love in India’s Bihar

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Patna: A young woman in India's Bihar was set on fire and then left to die in a locked room by her family members four days after she eloped with her lover.

Police said the angry family members set the woman on fire and then locked her in a room at Sonevarsha village in central Bihar’s Bhojpur district on Sunday before fleeing the scene.

Hearing her cries local villagers rushed to the spot but found her locked inside a room after which they informed the police.

“The police rushed to the spot and rescued the girl but sadly she succumbed to her grievous burn injuries,” the local sub-divisional police officer Anjani Kumar Singh said on Monday.

He said the police had registered a case against the family members and were investigating. The accused have yet to be found.According to local villagers, the victim’s family members were angry after she had eloped with her boyfriend four days before the attack. She had returned only after much persuasion by the familyThere has been a sudden increase in incidents of so-called ‘honour’ killings in Bihar which has alarmed the state administration.Such incidents are taking place despite the state government’s initiative to promote inter-caste marriages.In March, a man was lynched after he dared fall in love with the daughter from a powerful family in the Rohtas district. On being pressured by her family members, the man was called to the home on the pretext of deciding their future but was brutally beaten to death before the woman’s eyes.

Last year, a widowed woman who married against her family’s wishes was burnt to death along with her husband at Basantpur-Gaus village in Muzaffarpur district. The couple was killed by the woman’s brothers.