Maharajganj woman sets herself afire near UP assembly: Police

The police identified the woman as Anjali Tiwari, belonging to Maharajganj district in Uttar Pradesh. "A 35-year-old woman from Maharajganj district alighted from an auto-rickshaw at the capital tri-section in Lucknow on Tuesday afternoon, poured some inflammable material on herself and set herself afire,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Somen Barma.

A 35-year-old woman on Tuesday set herself afire near the Uttar Pradesh assembly building but police managed to douse the flames and rushed her to hospital, where her condition is stated to be serious. The police identified the woman as Anjali Tiwari, belonging to Maharajganj district in Uttar Pradesh.

"A 35-year-old woman from Maharajganj district alighted from an auto-rickshaw at the capital tri-section in Lucknow on Tuesday afternoon, poured some inflammable material on herself and set herself afire,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Somen Barma. “Police personnel present at the spot put a bedsheet on her and tried to extinguish the flames,” said Barma.

She was rushed to the Shyam Prasad Mukherjee Civil hospital, where her condition was stated to be serious, he added. The Capital Tri-section is in the vicinity of the UP BJP office and is a VVIP area with heavy police presence being a permanent feature of the locality.

"The woman from Mahrajganj tried to immolate herself near the BJP office. She was residing with Asif Raja as her relationship with her husband was not good. Asif has now gone abroad,” said Lucknow Commissioner of Police Sujit Pandey. “We have taken her statements and the probe is on," he added.

A report from Gorakhpur quoted Maharajganj SP Pradeep Gupta as saying that the woman had demonstrated in front of Asif's parents’ house in the city on October 4. As per Maharajganj residents, the woman had begun living with Asif and converted to Islam in 2012 after a dispute with her husband. Asif went to Saudi Arabia around two and a half years ago and also started sending her some money in her account but he has stopped doing it for the last few months. The Mahrajganj police said the woman had not lodged any complaint on October 4 or even later when she was asked for it.