Denied money for booze, man sets wife, son on fire

Kolkata: A middle-aged man set his one-and-a-half-year-old son and wife on fire after not getting money to buy liquor. His son succumbed to his injuries. The incident took place at Habibpur in Malda on Wednesday night.

Police said the accused, Mithu Singh, was alcoholic and he often used to beat up his wife.

He was in an inebriated state when he returned home on Wednesday evening. After staying for around an hour in the house, he asked his wife to give him some money.

He refused to tell her the reason for which he was asking the money and it led to an altercation. The accused beat up his wife Sonali and one-and-a-half-year-old son Shivam. He continued beating his wife till she fell on the floor. She was not even in a condition to restrict her husband from pouring kerosene on her and her son.

The accused set them on fire and came out of the house. Instead of fleeing from the spot, the accused continued criticising his wife for not giving him money while standing just outside the house.

The accused had got married to Sonali around three years ago and often there used to be quarrels between them.

On Wednesday evening, too, the quarrel continued till late night. Local people heard Sonali crying for help. But they didn't approach considering it to be a routine matter.

Later, some of the victim's neighbours found smoke billowing out of the house and they went to the spot to find both Sonali and her son set on fire.

Local people doused the flames and took both of them to Bulbulichandi Rural Hospital from where they were shifted to Malda Medical College and Hospital. The boy succumbed to his injuries in the hospital while his mother is fighting for her life.

Mithu was caught by the local people. They beat him up and handed him over to the police.

Police further came to know that the accused had also got engaged into trouble with some of his neighbours as he had misbehaved with them.

Local people demanded maximum punishment of the accused as he had continued to torture his wife for the past two-and-a-half years. Despite being told repeated times by local people to go to her parents, Sonali continued to stay at her in-laws' house.