In a strange incident, a 50-year-old man died of burns when a rocket fired by Deepavali revellers hit him in the city on Wednesday.
Interestingly, the rocket hit him when he had doused self with kerosene threatening his kith and kin of killing self only to extort money from them.
The deceased has been identified as Mahadeva a resident of Alanahalli.
A professional gambler, his habit had cost heavily to the family of wife and a son. He had lost property to the tune of Rs 15 lakh, to make up for the stake amount. It was also the reason for quarreling in the family.
On Wednesday, when Mahadeva was persisting his wife and son for Rs 40,000, dousing self with kerosene in the middle of the road in front of his house, fate had something bad in store for him.
A rocket fired from elsewhere landed near Mahadeva and eventually burst. Mahadeva who caught fire ran helter-skelter, but to no avail. He was rushed to a hospital where he died after sometime.
A case of unnatural death has been registered at Nazarbad police station.
Probe into sexual abuse
Following a petition by D R Vijaykumar husband of Savitha a victim of alleged sexual harassment at the University of Mysore, the investigating officer in the case C D Jagadish (ACP of NR sub-division) has been replaced by DCP (Crime and traffic) K P Bheemaiah.
Police commissioner K L Sudheer who confirmed the change in IO to Deccan Herald exuded confidence that the top officer entrusted with the task will file a report soon.
