Indore: Principal critical; accused says management demanded Rs 1 lakh

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Police on Tuesday failed to record the statement of BM College of Pharmacy principal Vimukta Sharma as her condition remained critical. The accused, Ashutosh Shrivastava, who had allegedly set her afire, told the police that he was upset over college management’s demand to pay Rs 1 lakh as fee.

IG (rural) Rakesh Gupta said that the accused was caught by the police while trying to jump into the Tinchha Fall a few minutes after the incident. He had suffered 11% burns on hands and chest in the incident. Gupta said that the accused claimed that the college management was demanding Rs 1 lakh as fee for long. The accused told the cops that the management had said that the marksheet would be provided only after he cleared the dues.

The police claimed that the accused was pressurising the principal into withdrawing a four-month-old case of knife attack on a college professor following dispute over marksheet.

Sharma was set ablaze outside college campus when she was collecting bilwapatra from a tree on Monday evening. Later, the accused had escaped to Tinchha Fall, about 8 kms from the college. However, he was saved by policemen and admitted to hospital. The statements of his family members were also being recorded by the police, Gupta added.