What is so far described as another gruesome case in Orissa of India, a couple was burnt alive by some miscreants inside their house. On 7th of March, 2011, in a small village called Belpada in Orissa of Bolangir district, in the late night, the miscreants set the house on fire, while both the husband and wife were sleeping. The reason cited for this is enmity due to land disputes.
Barely a few days before, one Deputy General Manager of Powmex Steel was burnt alive by workers of the factory of the same company. Occurrences of killing by setting fire on the person began in the eighties, when many brides were burnt alive after getting doused in Kerosene. This took place due to horrific demands of dowry after marriage by the bride grooms. But gradually as law clamped severely on perpetrators of such heinous crime, in the late nineties the trend of killing people while in sleep began occurring. The first incident was reported when Australian missionary Graham Stain’s vehicle was set on fire, while he was sleeping with his two minor sons inside the vehicle before twelve years.
SRIKANT MOHANTY