KAKINADA: A 27-year-old man set fire to a house in East Godavari district, burning a teen and a five-year-old girl alive, all because his marriage proposal was turned down by their family. The incident, which happened in Dhulla village of Kaidyam mandal early on Wednesday, left four other persons injured. Two of them are critical.
D Srinu, the accused, sprinkled petrol on his relative Kotni Satyaveni’s house and set it ablaze, the police said. CCTV footage from a nearby fuel station showed him buying petrol between 1.30 and 2 am on Wednesday. He then locked the house from outside before setting it ablaze, raising suspicion that he intended to murder the entire family.
The deceased were identified as Kotni Ramu, 18, son of Satyavathi, and her granddaughter G Vijayalakshmi, 5. Satyavathi and her elder daughter G Durgabhavani sustained burns of almost 80 per cent while trying to save their children, hospital authorities said. However, both their children were burnt to death. Durgabhavani’s two other children were also injured.
Srinu held a grudge against the family ever since they denied him the hand of their youngest daughter, the police said. He earlier lent Rs 70,000 to Satyavathi, whose husband Appa Rao is a night watchman, and was hopeful of marrying their daughter.
However, they reportedly turned down his proposal due to his behaviour, and a year ago, got the girl married. But Srinu allegedly kept quarrelling with the family.