Woman engineer burnt to death in Bihar

A woman government engineer was burnt to death after being allegedly tied to a chair at her rented house in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

The police said the incident happened on Sunday, though it was reported to the cops on Monday.

Police said they have recovered a note from the crime scene in which the deceased, Sarita Devi, asked her mother to “take care of her two kids”.

Police suspect she was tied to a chair and burnt to death in the rented house, from where she used to work.

Ms Devi was deputed as a junior engineer under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The police said the body was so badly burnt that they could only recover her skeleton.

“Her son was not with her when the incident occurred; he was visiting his grandmother. We have launched an investigation into the incident and have detained her husband and the landlord of the house for questioning,” senior superintendent of police Vivek Kumar said on Tuesday.

The landlord told the police during questioning that he used to look after all her paperwork and other official matters. Ms Devi separated from her husband 10 years ago and used to live alone with her younger son.

“After forensic test of bones recovered from the crime scene we will be able to find out who was behind the incident,” a police officer said.

On how the police found that the skeleton belonged to the junior engineer, the officer said, “Her mother recognised the slipper which was lying near the burnt skeleton”.