Devika would never have imagined that her house would turn into her coffin barely before she was out of her teens.
But that was exactly what happened when she was set ablaze around Wednesday midnight inside her small dwelling perched on the edge of a narrow road right next to the Salafi Juma Masjid that descends in a steep decline to a dead end.
That the neighbourhood is in a shock would be an understatement.
For the likes of Rahmath who witnessed the teenager and the aggressor being consumed by flames, it is likely to be one nightmarish memory that will haunt them for long. “I was jolted out of my sleep by the screaming, and I couldn’t immediately make out what was happening though on coming out I saw Devika’s mother crying out that she had lost her daughter. Then I saw two persons on fire inside and outside the house though I didn’t initially realise who they were,” said Rahmath who lives next door.
More people soon descended on the scene, and the realisation set in that the one on fire inside the house was Devika and the other outside was a man.
Krishnan, another neighbour, rushed in with water and poured it on both. The girl showed no signs of life, while the man was still alive and was rushed to the Ernakulam Medical College Hospital.
Rahim, who lives in the extended neighbourhood, said part of the patrol that the accused threw on the victim probably fell on her mother Molly who ran outside the house with her younger daughter.
“She probably thought that Devika also had followed them but then saw her on fire on turning back,” he said.
The victim’s father Shalan who suffered minor burn injuries in his desperation to save his daughter remains admitted at the Government Medical College. That he was bare-chested spared him of serious burns, which would have been the case had he worn a shirt.
