Lucknow: Teacher found burnt to death with her legs tied, neck chained to bed

Dharmveer Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP), Sidharth Nagar, said, “We are probing all angles to find the reason behind the woman’s death. The postmortem report is awaited. Six persons who knew the woman were questioned but nothing substantial came out.”

Anjani Kumar Rai, Station House Officer, Mohana police station, told The Indian Express that the woman, Anjali Yadav (27), lived in a rented room on the first floor of a house at Mohana town and was a teacher with a government upper primary school at Gohaniya village. The schools closed for summer vacations on Monday but she stayed back. On Tuesday, she spent time with the landlord’s daughters till 3pm and went upstairs to her room, the SHO said.

“Around 4pm, the landlord’s daughters spotted smoke billowing out of Anjali’s room and ran upstairs only to find the doors locked from inside. They infor-med her family and neighbours who called up the police. They broke into the room that was enveloped by raging flames triggered by cooking gas. The knob of the gas stove was found on the ground but the LPG cylinder did not explode as people doused the flames quickly,” the SHO said.

However, people could not get the woman out of the room as her legs were tied and neck was chained and locked to the wooden bed. She died as the people doused the flames. Police broke the lock and sent the body for autopsy, Rai added.

He said Anjali was from Jalaun district in Bundelkhand. Her father, Ajay Yadav, reached Mohana Wednesday and alleged that some unidentified persons were behind her death. A case has been lodged under IPC section 306 (abetment to suicide), the SHO said. Anjali’s father is a retired school teacher and she has four sisters.

Rai said that a woman colleague of Anjali lived in the same house in the adjoining room. She left for her native place after the school closed on May 20.

Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), Sidharth Nagar, Ram Singh, said Anjali joined as a teacher at the government-run Upper Primary School, Gauhania, in December, 2017. “The case should be probed thoroughly,” he said.