Four-year-old charred to death in ritual fire

Girl was trying to imitate her father who was performing a ceremony at their outer Delhi residence on the occasion of Ram Navami

Four-year-old charred to death in ritual fire

Girl was trying to imitate her father who was performing a ceremony at their outer Delhi residence on the occasion of Ram Navami

If you play with fire, you get burnt. No one knows this better than Raju Meena. The outer Delhi resident's four-year-old daughter was charred to death on Tuesday and his seven-year-old son is recovering from burn injuries. The incident took place at around 8 am yesterday in Kanjhawala area.

The deceased, Shivani Meena, lived in B-Block of Sawada Colony in the area along with her parents and elder brother Rahul, a class II student in a nearby school. On Tuesday morning her father Raju Meena performed a yagna at home in which the whole family, including Shivani, participated. The occasion was Ram Navami.

The girl noticed her father's action and after sometime she came back to the room where the ceremony had been held. She lifted a bowl full of kerosene oil and poured it on cow dung cakes that had been kept nearby. The cakes were still burning and as soon as she poured the oil a huge fire broke out and engulfed Shivani. The victim shouted for help writhing in pain. Hearing the commotion, Rahul, her brother, rushed in to save her.

He tried to pull her out of the fire but couldn't. His legs caught fire and he collapsed to the ground. Meanwhile, Raju Meena and his wife reached the spot and poured water on them. Shivani and Rahul were rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri area where Shivani was declared brought dead.

Rahul is receiving treatment. "Police conducted post-mortem of the girl at the mortuary to rule out any foul play. Shivani's father told the police she was trying to light cow dung cakes when the incident occurred," said a police official.