CHENNAI: A 42-year-old woman succumbed to burns at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital on Monday, a day after she set herself on fire when a team of police personnel came looking to detain her husband and son under preventive arrest ahead of the RK Nagar bypoll.
M Padmavathi received a call from her tenants about police threatening them to vacate the house in Nedunchelian Street in Chintadripet.
“Padmavathi reached Chintadripet on Sunday around 4:30 pm when a team of five policemen from the local station came searching for her son Pradeep and her husband Mohan to arrest them as a preventive measure.
She tried to explain that her husband and son were not involved in any criminal activities.
Failing to convince the officer, Padmavathi ran into her mother’s house and brought out a can of kerosene. Within minutes, she set herself on fire in front of the housing quarters,” said a senior police officer.
Passers-by who spotted this rushed her to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital where she succumbed to injures on Monday afternoon. Padmavathi is survived by her husband Mohan, who was a history-sheeter and her four children, Priyanka (24), Pradeep (19), Sanjay (17), and Sneha (16).
Speaking to Express, a relative who was waiting at the hospital to receive the body admitted on condition of anonymity that Mohan was a history-sheeter, with several cases pending against him.
“But it has been nearly 10 years since he was involved in any crime. He runs a cable TV operator shop and supports his family. Due to the continuous harassment from the police, Mohan shifted his house to Mylapore and rented his own house to a family,” said the relative. “After the family vacated the house, the police did not turn up in the area for a while.
Harassment started again during the jallikattu protest, when the entire family took part in the protest. The police had then warned one of Mohan’s son Pradeep not to participate.
After the protest, the police personnel would visit the area often and threaten the tenants staying in Mohan’s house. Depressed over this, Padma decided to end her life by setting herself on fire,” the relative added.
“None of us was there at home when the incident happened. But the police have detained my brother and my mother many times in petty cases. They also threatened our tenants, asking them to vacate,” said one of the children of the deceased, not wishing to be identified.
However, a senior police officer claimed that the police were only trying to protect Pradeep after receiving information that his rival gang was planning to murder him.
The team had visited the spot only to detain the father and son under preventive arrest, and had no intention to harm the family, the officer claimed.
Later in the afternoon, the family members filed a petition against the policemen, urging the Commissioner to take action against them.