Man sets self afire over police inaction in property dispute

Done/ALVI
Times News Network
Kanpur: A 55-year-old man set himself on fire after pouring petrol on himself in full public view at Chappan Bhog crossing in Shyam Nagar area under Chakeri police station on Sunday morning.
The passersby and shopkeepers present on the spot doused the fire somehow and alerted the police control room.
Subsequently, a police team from Chakeri police station rushed to the spot and admitted the man, identified as Ishwar Chandra Dikshit, with serious burns to Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) hospital.
The man’s daughters alleged that he took the extreme step due to police inaction in a dispute over their land in Bidhnoo area of the district.
Dikshit has been living on rent in the house of Radhey Shyam Tiwari at Chanakyapuri in Shyam Nagar area of Chakeri for the last four years.
His daughter Bhumika told reporters that he had bought a plot measuring 200 square yards in Gangapur Colony in Bidhnoo from one Sunita Verma, a resident of Shyam Nagar, in 2017.
On Friday, on the occasion of Dussehra, their family went to the plot to do some puja and associated rituals for starting the construction of the boundary wall.
“We were shocked when one Ghanshyam Singh Gaur came to the plot along with police and claimed the plot belongs to him. He had an altercation with my father who then approached Shyam Nagar police outpost and later Bidhnoo police station, but no action was taken. Frustrated and disturbed over police inaction, he went to the Chappan Bhog crossing on Sunday morning carrying a bottle of petrol. He then poured the petrol on himself and set himself on fire,” Bhumika said.
The passers-by present at the spot somehow doused the flames and informed the police control room.
The police admitted Ishwar Chandra to the LLR hospital in a critical condition.
Inspector Chakeri police station Madhur Mishra said, “Ishwar Chandra set himself on fire following a land dispute. Further investigations are on in this connection. His treatment is going on at the LLR, hospital.”