Gujarat: FIR filed against ‘ghost’ in a suicide attempt

The incident was of Chokari village in Padra taluka of Vadodara.

Representational Picture (AFP)

Vadodara: In a bizarre incident, the Gujarat Police on Friday lodged an FIR against an "unknown ghost" in an attempted suicide case of a woman in Vadodara district. The incident was of Chokari village in Padra taluka of Vadodara where a young housewife attempted to commit suicide by pouring kerosene on her body and setting herself on fire. However, her family members rescued her before she was completely burnt and admitted her to the Government SSG hospital in Vadodara. When police asked her the reason to attempt suicide, Manisha Padhiyar claimed that she was "instructed by a ghost" to pour kerosene on herself and die. "It was on the instructions of the ghost that I first poured kerosene on my body and when the ghost told me to set myself on fire, I lit the matchstick," she told police. Police dutifully registered the complaint and in the column for the accused's name, entered "unknown ghost". When media persons questioned her in-laws, they claimed that she told the same thing to them also. Neighbour Preetiben said: "We do not know which ghost she was talking about, but she told us the same thing, she was told by some ghost to commit suicide." Her father ridiculed the entire story. "My daughter must have attempted suicide because of some domestic violence in her in-laws house and instruction by ghost was a framed-up story by her in-laws," he claimed. But he admitted that she had never complained of any ill treatment by her in-laws and he too was told about "instructions by ghost" to his daughter to kill herself. Police refused to speak to the media.