Woman immolates herself in protest

29 August 2011 04:45 am

A young woman immolated herself in front of the tehsildar’s office in Kancheepuram district on Sunday evening, allegedly demanding remission of the death penalty awarded to three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who are set to be hanged on September 9.

According to locals, C Senkodi, an unmarried woman in her 20s, shouted slogans against hanging the death row convicts — Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthentharajan alias Santhan, and G Perarivelan alias Arivu — before emptying a bottle of petrol and setting herself afire.

Though some policemen doused the fire and arranged an ambulance to take her to hospital, Senkodi died on the way.

A note she purportedly wrote was recovered in which she expressed hope that her self-immolation would help to save the lives of the trio. In it, she recalled 26-year-old K Muthukumar who set himself ablaze two years ago, demanding India’s intervention to stop the violence in Sri Lanka.

Source: The Indian Express