A 26-year-old woman, who was arrested on Saturday for setting her lover ablaze in a car, on Sunday, confessed to the police that she had aborted two fetuses during her relationship with her boyfriend and decided to kill him after he refused to marry her.

The arrested woman poured kerosene on her 24-year-old boyfriend Deepak Sahu and set him afire during a heated argument on May 19. Locals rescued Sahu from a burning car in Ratu and rushed him to hospital. He succumbed to his injuries at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences’ (RIMS) burn ward on Friday.  

“He was exploiting me. He took money from me, impregnated me twice and found excuses whenever I asked him to marry me,” she told the police in her statement.  

Manoj Kumar Ray, in-charge of Ratu Police Station said that the police arrested her from Kathitand under Ratu Police Station in Ranchi on Saturday.

“They were in a long term relationship. The deceased man and the woman lived in the same locality under Thakurgaon Police Station in Ranchi. The woman claims that the boy had refused to marry her despite giving assurances in the past and that is why she killed him in a fit of rage,” said Ray.

Even on the fateful day, they had an argument over Sahu’s reluctance to marriage while they were in the car, Ray said, adding that the incident occurred at around 10am last Sunday on a road connecting Jakhratand and Hurhuri.

Locals found Sahu crying for help on the driver’s seat of the burning car. They poured water on him and pulled him out but by then he had already sustained severe burns.

“Locals could not find the woman. She may have fled after setting the car afire,” Ray said.

Born in a humble family of farmers, the woman was the youngest of eight siblings. She told the police that she had helped Sahu financially to buy the car and also took loans for him to help him start a business.