Final-year student battling for life after stalker sets her afire in T’gana

HYDERABAD: A 20-year-old woman was set on fire by her stalker, one of her batchmates in college, for spurning his advances.

The incident happened n the main road in Hanamkonda town oftelangana’swarangaldistrict, police said on Wednesday.

The woman, a final-year student Vaagdevi Degree and PG College, was about to enter the college at around 10am, when Pendyala Sai Anvesh, 21, approached her on a motorcycle, doused her with petrol and set her on fire.

Even before other students and passersby could react, Ravali was engulfed in flames. Some of them caught hold of Anvesh, who tried to flee, and thrashed him, before handing him over to the police.

Other students put out the flames and took the woman to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital at Warangal, where doctors declared her condition to be critical as she suffered 90% burns. They advised that she should be shifted to another hospital in Hyderabad for better treatment. Hanamkonda additional superintendent of police Chandraiah and inspector Santosh Kumar are in charge of the investigations. Kumar said the woman, who belongs to Ramachandrapuram village of Sangem block, is a classmate of Anvesh, who hails from Chennaram village of Wardhannapet block. He added that Anvesh expressed his love for her, and she rejected his advances.