A 26-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh died early Friday during treatment at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital days after he allegedly set himself on fire near the Parliament building Wednesday.
A Baghpat resident, Jitendra Kumar set himself ablaze using petrol in a park at the Rail Bhawan roundabout at around 3.30 pm Wednesday, sustaining 90 per cent of burn injuries. Devesh Mahla, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), said Kumar was upset over personal enmity.
“He passed away at around 2 am. The postmortem examination has been done, and the report is awaited. His body was handed over to his family. An ACP from the UP Police escorted them to their native place,” a senior Delhi Police officer said Friday.
Nitin, Kumar’s friend, told The Indian Express he is survived by his parents Mahipal, 60, and Omi, 55, brothers Ravindra, 28, and Shibu, 24, and a 22-year-old sister. “His sister was about to get married in February 2025,” he said.
“There should be a fair investigation and the culprits should be punished. Had the police acted properly on time, this day would not have come,” he said.
Kumar was cremated Friday afternoon in his native village in Patti Dhandhan, Chhaprauli.
After the incident, the police found a general class railway ticket from Baraut to Shahdara on his person, and that Kumar reached the Shahdara railway station at around 1 pm Wednesday before immolating himself. He was rushed to RML Hospital after the local police and Railway Police, along with civilians, doused the fire using a blanket.
DCP Mahla said earlier during their investigation the Delhi Police found some papers which revealed that three cases were registered against him in May 2021, April 2022, and May 2024 in Baghpat. “In his statement, he had alleged local police of not probing the case properly,” he had said.
According to sources, in his police statement, Kumar named a man who he accused of troubling him and his family for some years.
The family had told The Indian Express on Wednesday that Kumar dropped out of an LLB course due to the ongoing cases against him.
While speaking to The Indian Express, his cousin, Gaurav, 21, had alleged no one listened to them as they are from the lower caste. He had claimed some people had assaulted Kumar’s father in 2021. “When his family tried to lodge a case, Jitendra got booked instead. The same people who assaulted his father and lodged another case against Jitendra under Section 308 in 2022,” he had said.
The cousin also claimed that the accused even tried to run over Kumar and his father in 2024. “Instead a false case was registered against him again. They kept threatening him and his family to stay silent over all these years… he was even jailed for 1.5 months in one of these fake cases.”
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