BIDAR: A woman was charred to death when the car in which she was travelling caught fire on Mumbai-Hyderabad national highway near Nirna cross of Bidar in the wee hours of Thursday.
The victim’s husband, who tried to rescue his wife, suffered burns, while the couple’s two children escaped unhurt. The fire erupted from the car’s bonnet.
The deceased is Kalyani (35), wife of Udaykumar from Hyderabad. The couple’s two sons aged 12 and 10, respectively had to haplessly watch, while the onlookers were busy shooting the incident on their cell phone camera.
According to Bidar SP T Sridhar, the family took a car on rent, with Udaykumar himself driving the vehicle from Hyderabad to Udgir in Maharashtra on Wednesday. Kalyani who was suffering from acute stomach ache had come to Udgir to consult a doctor. After meeting the doctor, they halted at Humnabad in Bidar overnight.
They were returning to their native on Thursday, when the children asked Udaykumar to turn on the warmer in AC to beat cold weather. A few minutes after the warmer was turned on, smoke started coming out from the bonnet. Petrified, Udaykumar, followed by his sons got down from the vehicle to check the bonnet. However, fire broke out soon after the bonnet was opened and engulfed the car.
Kalyani who was wearing abdomen belt and seat belt could not come out of the car, even as her husband tried to open the door in vain. The SP ruled out the possibility of sabotage saying that the couple did not have any issues as told by their relatives who came down to Bidar after the mishap. The SP said, “The investigators are vetting into electrical and mechanical malfunctioning as fire erupted from the bonnet”.