Mumbai, May 25
The death of a 65-year-old Dalit woman, allegedly burnt alive by a police officer at CIDCO MIDC police station in Aurangabad, rocked the Maharashtra Assembly with the Opposition Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party forcing two adjournments on the issue.
Police Inspector Dayanand Bhoite is accused of setting afire Mandabai Hivarale on the police station premises last weekend. The woman died in hospital yesterday.
Bhoite, however, told investigators that the woman had set fire to herself.
The circumstances behind the incident are not clear and the state government
has ordered a CID inquiry into the matter.
Maharashtra’s opposition leader Gopinath Munde accused the state government of trying to hush up the matter.
When the Maharashtra House met today the Opposition pressed for an adjournment. Munde, who visited the site yesterday, claimed on the floor of the House that either police officials’ refusal to register a complaint of the deceased compelled her to commit suicide or there were reports that police personnel set her afire.
He said he did not have specific information about the incident.
Home Minister R.R. Patil claimed that Mandabai was not set afire by policemen and she died of burns outside the premises of the police station.
However, the Opposition was not satisfied with the reply and the House witnessed pandemonium and was adjourned twice.
