Woman immolates self, child at Malad

MUMBAI: A young woman and her baby were killed after she set them both on fire in their shanty at Malad West on Monday.
The Malad police are yet to find out the motive. The woman's husband was working on a construction site at the same premises as their shanty, when the incident took place.
Janki Verma, the deceased, was in her mid-twenties. She was putting up in a shanty with her husband, Anuj, and two-year-old daughter, Nidhi.Anuj was working on an under-construction building near Saraswat Bank. Around 4-4.30 pm, Janki locked herself in the shanty with Nidhi, while Anuj was away at work. She allegedly doused kerosene on herself and on the infant, before striking a match. The shanty was soon enveloped in flames.
"Anuj's co-worker at the construction site noticed the flames and raised an alarm. Anuj rushed towards the shanty but was unable to yank open the door. He and his co-workers broke open the asbestos sheets covering the shanty. They managed to put out the fire and rushed Janki and Nidhi to Shatabdi Hospital," a police official said. The Malad police was informed.
Janki and Nidhi had sustained 85 to 90% burns. While Nidhi was pronounced dead immediately, Janki battled on for sometime. Eventually, she too succumbed to her injuries. Her body was sent to the Borivali post-mortem centre for an autopsy. An accidental death case was recorded