TIRUPPUR: Dejected by the dismissal of her petition by a court in a property dispute, a 55-year-old woman immolated herself and died inside the Dharapuram sub-court complex in Tiruppur on Monday.
According to a police source, R Govindammal, a resident of Varapalayam in Dharapuram town, had a property dispute with her father Ramaswamy and brothers Subramanian and Eswaramoorthy for the past many years. In 2020, she filed a partition suit against her brothers and father in the Dharapuram magistrate court.
As the woman failed to appear before the court for multiple hearings, the magistrate dismissed her petition and passed an ex parte judgment in favour of her father and brothers on April 3, 2024.
Aggrieved over the ruling, the woman came to the court on Monday and confronted the judge on the issue. The judge advised Govindammal to approach her advocate to pursue the matter legally.
According to sources, the woman, who was depressed, walked out of the court and offered prayer at a temple located inside the court compound before she drank a liquid suspected to be poison and committed self-immolation. Govindammal died on the spot.
A police officer said, “There are four court chambers in the sub-court complex. Though some police personnel are posted in front of each of these courts, security personnel are not deployed at the entrance of the court complex.”
Woman concealed kerosene in her bag, say police
“Since the woman was often seen in the complex, nobody seemed to worry about the bag she was carrying. She had concealed a bottle of kerosene in her bag and moved to the Hindu temple which was located on the east side of the court complex near the advocate bar office located in a relatively isolated spot.
Since the place is surrounded by bushes, none of the advocates, police personnel, or witnesses noticed her setting herself on fire immediately and she could not be saved,” the officer said. A case has been registered at Dharapuram police station and investigations are on.
(To overcome suicidal thoughts, contact the health department’s helpline 104 or the Sneha helpline: 91-44-24640050)