KHAMMAM: In a peculiar yet tragic incident, a 38-year-old lady immolated herself to death on Tuesday leaving behind a single letter that said Jesus Christ was calling on her and so she had to leave.
Identified as Bangarala Veena, the deceased was an ayurvedic doctor posted at a primary health centre in Pedagopathi village in Khammam.
According to the locals and her colleagues at the health centre, Veena came to the hospital as usual on Tuesday morning at 11 am. Soon after her colleagues heard a commotion from the nearby Unani hospital in Pedagopathi village and rushed to the spot to find Veena on the floor with severe burns. She had poured petrol on her body before setting herself ablaze. Doctors declared her dead on the spot. Police also rushed to Unani hospital and informed her husband, B Shiva Kumar, an employee at a pharmacy company in Hyderabad, of her death.
In a letter found in Veena’s handbag left in front of the hospital, said to be in her handwriting, it was written that her God, Christ, was calling her and so she was leaving to be with him. It also asked for both her children to be baptised which is the only way she would rest in peace. It also said that the husband was a good man and asked him to take good care of the children. It also said that no one except Veena was responsible for her death.
Veena lived with her husband and two daughters at Mamillagudem in Khammam town and did a daily shuttling between the town and village health centre. Her colleagues at the primary health centre remembered how she was a quiet one and never shared any of her personal issues with them. She preferred to work alone and had a separate room to herself in the health centre.