Police on the hunt for male friend of Dalit girl who succumbed to burn injuries

Shivakumar Hirehala, a Lingayat and Daneshwari, a Dalit, were classmates during their engineering course and were reportedly in love.

Electronics City Police are on the look out for Shivakumar Hirehala, a friend of Dalit engineering graduate Daneshwari, who on Friday succumbed to burn injuries she had sustained on March 15. 

Daneshwari’s cousin who lodged a complaint of murder against him has also given a complaint under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, sources said. An FIR has been registered and Shivakumar has been booked under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code for murder and SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, police officials said.

Shivakumar Hirehala, a Lingayat and Daneshwari, a Dalit, were classmates during their engineering course in Vijayapura and were reportedly in love. Her family has claimed that he refused to marry her as his parents were opposed to the marriage because of her caste. In their complaint to the police, her family members alleged that Shivakumar doused her with petrol and set her on fire when she went to meet him at his office in Electronics City on March 15.

However, it was Shivakumar who rushed her to the hospital. Before he absconded  he claimed to the police that she had set herself aflame. “The investigation is under way and it will reveal the exact sequence of events,” a senior police official said.