A man and a woman set themselves on fire just outside the Supreme Court, near its Gate Number D on Monday.
The two are said to be litigants whose bail had been rejected in a hearing. Upon leaving the premises near Gate D, the two set themselves ablaze with a lighter. Police personnel deployed there rescued them by dousing the fire and sent them to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for treatment.
But before attempting self-immolation, they shot a live video making allegations against IPS officer Amit Pathak, former Uttar Pradesh IG Amitabh Thakur and a Judge of MP/MLA Court for saving accused BSP MP Atul Rai. In the video, the woman could be heard saying she was the victim in a rape case, but the UP Police was trying to prove her characterless and a non-bailable warrant has also been issued against her from two places – Baliya and Varanasi.
Recently, a case was registered against the woman on a complaint lodged by the brother of MP Atul Rai, who is in jail since 2019. The Uttar Pradesh Police registered an FIR against the woman and her associate under IPC sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
In 2019, the woman, a resident of Mau, had filed a case against Atul Rai, alleging the BSP MP had been sexually harassing her for nearly a year after she went to his apartment in Varanasi’s Lanka area. She had also alleged that Rai made a video of her and threatened to circulate it on social media.