Madhya Pradesh: A shocking crime has been reported in Indore, where a student has been accused of setting his college principal on fire over a dispute about a mark sheet. The 24-year-old accused sprinkled petrol on 54-year-old Dr. Vimukta Sharma five days ago on the premises of a private pharmacy college in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. According to reports, the badly burnt principal was undergoing treatment at the hospital where she breathed her last on Saturday morning.
Case registered under NSA
Bhagwat Singh Virde, Superintendent of Police (Rural) informed that the accused Ashutosh Srivastava was an alumnus of BM College of Pharmacy located in the Simrol police station area. He assaulted his college principal in daylight on February 20, 2023. According to police, the female principal was battling for her life for 5 days with 80 percent burns. Despite all the efforts of the doctors, her life could not be saved and she died in the early hours of Saturday. Accused Srivastava was arrested on the day of the incident and is under police custody currently. The district administration has invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against Shrivastava.
'We will try to get him the death sentence from the court' said Police
The Superintendent of Police informed that a case has been registered against Srivastava under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC and section 302 (murder) based on the statement of the principal. Virde said, 'We have concrete evidence and witness against the accused. Also, we have the statement of the principal. We will request that this case be tried in a special court. We will try to get him the death sentence from the court.'
As per police, the accused has not expressed any regret for his heinous actions till now. The police called the accused 'vicious' and informed Srivastav has confessed his crime saying that he set the female principal on fire with a lighter after pouring petrol. However, the police are encircled with a number of questions about their delayed action. As per reports, Devanshi, daughter of the late principal said that months before this heinous act, Srivastava had sent threatening messages to her mother on Whatsapp, but the police didn't take any action despite receiving the complaint.
Principal received messages from Srivastava threatening her to commit suicide
Talking about the delayed action, Virde informed that the female principal received messages from Srivastava threatening her to commit suicide. They had suspended an assistant sub-inspector in this regard for negligence in investigating these complaints.
Shrivastava allegedly told police during interrogation that the college authorities were not handing over the mark sheet of the B Pharm examination which he had cleared in July 2022. But the college management termed this claim as false and alleged that he had criminal tendencies. They also claimed that despite being asked to collect his mark sheet repeatedly, he did not collect it.
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