Woman says no, gets burnt

A house owner allegedly set fire to a female tenant in the city's Kadamtoli yesterday for rejecting his advances.
Victim Achhia Begum, 38, wife of a rickshaw van puller, was rushed to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where she was fighting for life with 80 percent burn injuries.
House owner Fazar Ali, 55, however, said he neither set her on fire nor gave any indecent proposal. He said Achhia had illicit relations with a youth whom she introduced as her husband when she rented the house.
Achhia told reporters at DMCH that Fazar Ali set her on fire on the ground floor of the building around 3:30am.
“Around 3:00am he knocked my door saying he had an urgent talk.”
After she opened the door, Ali proposed her to maintain an illicit relation with him in exchange of food and shelter for her and her two daughters. Refused, he suddenly poured fuel on her and set fire to her, she added.
Hearing her scream, her two minor daughters and other tenants got up and rushed to the scene. Ali had already gone to his room upstairs.
When the tenants and her daughters were trying to douse the fire, Ali and his wife came down and started blaming Achhia for setting the fire, her daughters said.
Achhia rented the house on December 1 after leaving her husband's Arambagh residence following a feud, her sister said.
Police arrested Ali for interrogation. Mozammel Huq, deputy commissioner (Wari Zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said Ali might have set the fire.
Victim's son Akhter, who used to live separately, was making preparation to file a case with Kadamtoli Police Station in this regard.