Lucknow: Four days after a man set himself on fire, five members of a family, including three women, attempted yet another self-immolation outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath office at Lok Bhawan on Friday.
The police, however, acted swiftly and saved their lives before they could pour kerosene on them to set themselves afire. The Hazratganj Police have detained all five members of the family.
They have been identified as Raja Ram (80), his wife Ram Shree (70), son Umesh Yadav, Usha Devi and Pushpa, all residents of Dhannupurwa village in Hardoi district. The family had come to Lucknow Friday morning and straight away went to Lok Bhawan for mass self-immolation.
Despite complaints to the police and revenue officials, their land lease was cancelled and they were being forced to vacate the house. Senior police officials have contacted the Hardoi Police to act on their complaint to ensure justice to the aggrieved family.
Earlier, Uma Shanker, a resident of Kannauj had set himself on fire on February 1. Police deployed at the high security zone outside Lok Bhawan wrapped him with a blanket to douse flames. He was rushed to the hospital with a 30 per cent burn. His condition is stable now.
In fact, Lok Bhawan has become one of the hot-spot for aggrieved people to make a suicide bid to seek justice from the Chief Minister. Within a month five such cases have been reported.
“People make self-immolation attempts outside Lok Bhawan to draw the attention of the media and officials to ensure that their complaint would be attended quickly,” pointed a senior police officer. He said that they had to deploy an extra police force, equipped with blankets and fire extinguishers, at all gates of Lok Bhawan to foil self-immolation attempts.
