Upset by poor health, girl sets herself afire, jumps before moving train

Depressed over her poor health, a 20-year-old girl doused herself in petrol and jumped before a moving train just a few blocks away from her home in Belagavi on Friday, the railway police said.

Sanjana Chandrakant Angrolkar, a student at Maratha Mandal Polytechnic, had been suffering from tuberculosis since she was in high school and was on medication. But her health showed little signs of improvement. Her digestive system was wrecked and she vomited frequently.

On Friday, Sanjana’s father Chandrakant dropped her off at Sambhaji Circle where she boarded the college bus. But it’s unclear whether she reached the college or alighted from the bus midway.

Sometime later, she got two bottles of petrol and reached the first railway gate in Tilakwadi, just a few metres away from her neighbourhood of Agarkar Road. She waited there until the Miraj-Hubballi fast passenger came hurtling around 11.45 am.

She quickly doused herself in petrol and set herself on fire. In no time, she was up in flames. She then jumped on the track. The train smashed her head and severed one of her legs. She was dead before long.

The incident drew a large crowd, and police arrived soon after. Police retrieved her body whose upper portion bore severe burns.

They also found a four-page suicide letter in which Sanjana cited her poor health as the reason for her suicide and said no one else was responsible. She asked her parents not to get disheartened by her death.
DH News Service