'Screams of save me': Odisha man recounts moments after girl, set on fire, reached his doorsteps

Puri: The man who saved the life of the 15-year-old girl, kidnapped and set on fire by some men in Odisha's Puri district, recounted on Sunday the 90 minutes that he spent after she knocked on his door with cries of "save me, save me".

Dukshishyam Senapati, a resident of Balanga village, said he could not believe his eyes when he opened the door after hearing the knocks and the screams.

"The girl was on fire and screaming in pain," Senapati told DGP YB Khurania, who visited the spot, trying to make sense of the sequence of events that unfolded in the nondescript village on Saturday morning.

"It was around 8.30 am when the girl came to my house, screaming. With the help of my wife, I doused the fire and gave her water as she was very thirsty. Later, the women of my family changed her clothes," he said.

Senapati said he had asked the girl what had happened, and he was told that three unknown men had set her on fire.

"She said she was walking back home after meeting a friend when she was picked up by three men who arrived on motorcycles. The faces of these men were half-covered, and they took her to a place near the Bhargavi riverbank. She could not tell their names. She could only say that they covered her face with a handkerchief and poured some substance before setting her on fire," he said.

"I did not insist much because she was trembling," he told the DGP.

Senapati said that the accused had tied her hands when they abducted her.

"But, when she reached my place, her hands were free," he said.

He said that the victim told him the name of her father and the village where she lives, following which he contacted them.

"I could not speak much to her as a large number of people assembled at our house," he said.

Senapati said he also ran out of his house to look for the men involved in the crime, but could not find them.

"The girl told me that they escaped immediately after setting her on fire. The attackers might have thought that she would die on the spot, but the brave girl ran away and reached our house," he said.

He also told the DGP that the 108 ambulance arrived at his house late, forcing him to find an auto rickshaw to take the girl to the hospital.

"The ambulance came at the same time when we were taking her to the auto rickshaw. The girl stayed around 90 minutes in our place," he said.

Senapati said the incident has triggered panic in the village.

"Our children are hesitant to go outside alone. We demand immediate arrest of the culprits," he said.

The girl, who suffered 70 per cent burn injuries, was taken to AIIMS-New Delhi for better treatment.