15 year old boy refuses to say ‘Jai Shri Ram’, set afire in India

A 15 year old boy was set on fire by four people in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh when he refused to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

The victim has been admitted in Kabir Chaura hospital in Varanasi where he is being treated for receiving 60 percent burns.

The minor gave a statement on camera in the hospital saying, “I was walking on Dudhari bridge when four men kidnapped me. Two of them tied my hand and third one started pouring kerosene. After which they set me on fire and ran away.”

He later went on to say that he was being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.

However, the police denied the allegations that the boy was beaten up and set afire for not chanting the slogan. According to Chandauli SP Santosh Kumar Singh, both the contradictory statements of the boy are false and he set himself on fire.

The SP also added, “He’s admitted in a hospital with 45 per cent burns. He had given different statements to different people, so it seemed suspicious. It seemed he had been tutored. Police monitored CCTV footage of places he had mentioned and found that he had not been at any of those places.”

However, a probe into the matter is underway.