Wife succumbs to burn injuries after husband throws boiling oil at her

Malwani police have converted an “attempt to murder” case into one of “murder” after an oil-burn victim succumbed to serious injuries on Saturday night.

The agitated husband of Shamima Sultana (25), also known as Maryam, had thrown boiling oil at her last month and had escaped. Later, he was arrested and booked for attempt to murder.

Police have confirmed the development in the case and added that Sultana’s body has been handed over to relatives after post-mortem.

“The police video-graphed her statement in which she has also held her mother-inlaw responsible for the incident. But the police have not arrested Sultana’s motherin-law,” said a source.

Sultana and Shaikh were married in 2008 and they had two children. She was working as a sales executive in a shopping mall in Andheri and their marriage was not a happy one. They got divorced recently.

The incident took place just two months after they got divorced. On March 22 Shaikh called Sultana and told her that he was at her house in Malwani and will cook chicken biryani for her.

But, Shaikh threw the same boiling oil over her he was using to fry the chicken. She was admitted to a nearby multi-speciality hospital Oscar at Kandivali (west) where doctors tried to their best to save her but she breathed her last at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

“Sultana received deep burn injuries up to 50% on her whole body. She was critical since Day One. The internal layer of her skin was burnt. She underwent surgery four times,” said Dr Nitin Pawar from Oscar hospital.

Dr Pawar added that Sultana became so weak that “she first caught pneumonia and later an infection in kidney.”

The medical expenditure was borne by her povertystricken brother Raja, who too resides in Malwani. The sources have added that an NGO came forward and donated Rs 60,000 to buy medicines for Sultana.

Further investigations are on.