Gayathri Thakoor
In a fit of rage, on the morning of November 22, Sunil Shambhu Dhonde, a resident of Mahatma Phule Nagar, Mulund east, did the unthinkable. He just set his wife on fire! And Vijaya, his wife, went several steps ahead. Ablaze, she simply embraced him, refusing to go through the ordeal alone. So much for sticking to their marriage vows!
Unfortunately, Vijaya, a housewife, is most likely to lose her life, say doctors, after suffering from 90 per cent burns. Dhonde on the other hand has borne 43 per cent burns. The police are waiting for him to be discharged, to book him.
Little did Dhonde think that on the ill-fated morning, a small argument would push him to the edge.
“A little before 7 am, that day, Vijaya had asked her husband for some money as she wanted to get some flowers and items for a puja. The argument started there, and Dhonde got so angry that he poured kerosene on his wife. Sensing the situation, Vijaya asked her younger son, Durgesh, to go out for a while, after which Dhonde set her ablaze. As the flames erupted she said ‘I won’t leave you,’ and embraced him. Both the husband and wife stood burning in the hall of their residence,” informs ACP P P Patil.
On hearing the screams, the alert neighbours, rescued the burning couple and rushed them to Kamgar Hospital in Mulund west. “Doctors and witnesses claim that Vijaya was fully conscious when she was brought in and she kept reinstating that her husband had set her on fire,” affirms Patil.
Her statement is enough for the police to book Dhonde and slap an attempt-to-murder case against him under Sec 307. This is provided she survives, chances of which are very slim, state witnesses. The case will then fall under the `murder’ list, inform the police.
Working at a jewellery shop at Goregaon, Dhonde made small pieces of jewellery to earn a living. The couple has two children. Seven-year-old Durgesh can’t imagine how his parents could almost kill each other over a petty fight. His elder brother, Swapnil, 17, who studies in Ahmadnagar, is the only solid support that he can now count on.
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