A 19-year-old woman, who was set ablaze allegedly by her husband’s relatives in Kannahalli village near Malavalli, died here on Thursday.
The woman, identified as Shilpa, was a native of Bhairaveshwara Nagar near Metagalli in Mysore.
According to the police, Shilpa and Abhijith married four months ago against his family’s wishes. They belonged to different communities.
The police said that Shilpa named Abhijith’s uncle, Puttaswamy, and his wife, Prameela, in her dying declaration.
On Tuesday, Puttaswamy and his wife invited Shilpa to their house. Abhijith, an assistant in a garage, did not accompany her because he was at work. The couple, on the pretext of taking her to a temple, reached a vacant plot near Kannahalli and tried to strangle her. When Shilpa tried to escape, they overpowered her, poured fuel over her and set her on fire, the police said.
The victim then crawled some distance, reached a service road near Malavalli-Mysore main road and sought help from passersby. Local residents alerted the police and rushed her to a hospital in Malavalli.
She was later referred to the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences hospital where she died of 50 per cent burns at noon.
Shilpa’s mother Mangalamma told The Hindu that her daughter and Abhijith, a resident of Jaideva Nagar in Mysore, fell in love two years ago.
The couple had been living in Bhairaveshwara Nagar.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Malavalli subdivision) Annappa Naik said that a team has been formed to trace the uncle and aunt, Abhijith and his parents.
One person has been taken into custody, Mandya Superintendent of Police Bhushan Gulabrao Borase said.
