‘Pulled her hands when emerged outside, her body was still burning,’ witnesses recount inhumane cruelty

KOLLAM: The ghastly incident of a middle-aged man setting his wife ablaze happened last night at 9 pm at Chammamukku in Kollam. He doused petrol on her and then set her afire. The victim is Anila (44) of Kottiyam Thazhuthala Thundil Melethil House. Another youth in the car, an employee of Anila’s bakery, managed to escape with burn injuries. Her husband Padmarajan (55) later surrendered at the East Police Station.

The eyewitnesses, still reeling from the shock of seeing a human being engulfed in flames, expressed their anguish at being unable to save the victim in time.
Words of a witness

‘We saw the incident of an Omni van ramming an Alto car when talking to friends. Soon after hitting, saw a man in the van putting something inside the car. Within moments, the car was on fire. The man on the driver’s seat in the Omni Van ran from there.

By the time we ran to the spot, a youth from the car jumped out. His clothes were on fire, and he was rolling on the ground to douse it. He told us that someone was still inside the car, repeatedly saying that Pappan set the car on fire. When we approached the car, it was racing uncontrollably. We realized that the person inside was a woman. She was strapped in with the seatbelt, which started to burn. When the seatbelt melted, her hands came out of the car. We grabbed and put her outside. Her body was still burning and she was pulling us backwards. It was impossible to even get closer to the car at that time. The car exploded thrice. When she was taken out, she had 80 percent burns. We immediately covered her with a sack. Later called the police and the fire force.’

The police said the murder was caused by a financial and family dispute. Anila had recently opened a bakery near the private hospital at Ashramam Maithanam along with Haneesh. Padmarajan was not in talking terms with Anila for a week. The two had borrowed Rs 150,000 from Padmarajan to open the bakery. There was a verbal dispute between Padmajaran and Haneesh when the former asked to return the money. He planned to kill the two in the car and had stocked petrol for it. Padmarajan waited in his Omni van at Kadappakada till Anila closed the shop and left. However, instead of Haneesh, another employee of the bakery was with her in the car. Padmarajan followed them and executed his plan near Chammamukku.