Rampyari Bai, the 45-year-old tribal woman who was allegedly set ablaze and the act filmed by a group of villagers over a land dispute in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna on July 2, succumbed to her burns on Friday.
Rampyari Bai, who belonged to the Sahariya tribe that has been categorised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), had suffered 80% burns. After her husband raised an alarm following the incident, she was first taken to the district hospital and from there referred to Bhopal, where she died during treatment.
The police confirmed the death and added that the accused will now be charged with Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Earlier, Rampyari’s husband Arjun Sahariya had told the police that he had seen six fellow villagers — brothers Pratap and Hanumant Dhakad, their three other family members, and one family friend, Maharaj Pandit — set Rampyari Bai ablaze after pouring diesel on her. The police had initially registered a case of attempt to murder and added relevant provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Five of the six accused have been arrested so far while Mr. Pandit remains at large, said Guna Superintendent of Police Pankaj Shrivastava. The accused maintain that the woman set herself ablaze but investigations so far have not revealed anything to substantiate that claim, the SP added.
Rampyari is survived by four children, including three married daughters, apart from her husband.
The immolation, Mr. Arjun Sahariya had alleged earlier, was the outcome of a dispute over a patch of land allotted to them under a Chief Minister’s welfare scheme launched by the erstwhile Digvijaya Singh government. A dispute with the accused over the ownership of the land was settled by the local administration in their favour in May, he added. Nearly a week before the incident, on June 23, Mr. Arjun Sahariya had reportedly sought police protection claiming that his life was under threat. However, no action was taken.
