Family members of 22-year-old Pavithra, who succumbed to burn injuries on Thursday, said she wanted to survive so that she could see the accused Bharati punished.
Speaking to presspersons soon after her sister’s death, Pavithra’s elder sister, Aishwarya said: “My sister said she wanted to live and asked us to ensure that Bharati is punished. However, she succumbed in the early hours. Bharati had also claimed that he was trying to save my sister but Pavithra told us that he was only pretending so that he would not get caught.”
Sampath Kumar said his niece had recounted the sequence of events to the family in Victoria hospital a day after the incident. “Pavithra said she had gone to Bharati’s house on Tuesday, but she did not tell us what conversation she had with him. However, there was an argument between the two following which he doused her with kerosene and set her on fire,” he said.
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Ms. Aishwarya said that since many days, she had been observing her sister constantly talking over the phone and also had gone through her call register. “When I called the number, Bharati picked up and claimed he was having an affair with my sister,” she added.
However, the family denied the affair and alleged harassment by him. “Pavithra was being harassed by him even in the workplace. She had even confided to one of her friends who had also called Bharati and asked him to stop the harassment,” her sister added.