Tihar official, son held for setting woman ablaze

A deputy superintendent of Tihar Jail and his 27-year-old son have been held for allegedly setting ablaze the young man’s wife for not fulfilling their dowry demands at south Delhi’s Mahipalpur.

Usha Singh, 25, has been admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with 65 per cent burns.
Gyan Singh, 50, is in-charge of Central Public Relations Office. His son Nitin works for a private security firm in Faridabad.

Gyan and Nitin have been booked on charges of attempting to murder a woman and for harassing her over dowry. They have been lodged at jail number four in Tihar.
The victim’s mother-in-law’s role is also being probed, but she has not been arrested as she is paralytic. Usha has accused her mother-in-law of abusing her verbally.

The police were informed of the incident around 4 pm on Wednesday when one of the neighbours called the police control room. “The neighbours heard the victim’s screams for help and poured water on her to douse the flames,” said a police officer.

Since Usha and Nitin were married for less than seven years, her statement was recorded at the hospital by a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM).

“The victim told the SDM that her in-laws had been harassing her for dowry ever since her marriage to Nitin three years ago. On Wednesday also, there was an argument between the victim and her father-in law. Gyan had been ordering her to get money from her maternal home and when she expressed her inability, he and his son beat her up,” said the officer.