Woman dies of burns, relatives block road to seek in-laws’ arrest

Bathinda: Relatives of a woman, who succumbed to burn injuries on Thursday, blocked traffic outside the Bathinda civil hospital on Mansa road and demanded the arrest of her in-laws on Friday. Following the protest, police arrested victim Sukhpreet Kaur’s husband, Satnam Singh of Jandawala village, and sought a day’s time to arrest his other family members.

Relatives of the woman ended the protest only after police assured them of fulfilling their demands. However, they threatened to resume the protest on Saturday if the arrests were not made.

“Sukhpreet got married to Satnam in Bathinda nearly 10 years ago. Both had an eight-year-old son. Satnam’s family used to harass Sukhpreet for dowry. On May 31, her in-laws informed us that Sukhpreet had torched herself. When we reached there, my sister told us that her husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-law had burnt her,” alleged deceased’s brother Kuldeep Singh. He said they took her to Bathinda and later referred her to Ludhiana, where she succumbed to burn injuries on Thursday.

Nehia Wala police had registered a case against Satnam, his father, Resham Singh, mother, Manjit Kaur, and sister, Sandeep Kaur, under attempt to murder and harassment for dowry on June 2. The case has been upgraded to murder, said the police.

Bathinda superintendent of police (city) Balraj Singh said Satnam had been arrested and efforts were being made to arrest his other family members.