A 34-year-old man suffering from a mental ailment burned to death after he jumped onto a burning pyre at a crematorium in Nagpur on Saturday, June 1.
According to the police, the man, identified as Mahesh Kotangde, jumped onto the pyre of a dead man who had been cremated at Jaitala crematorium. Inspector RS Kshirsagar of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) police station said Kotangde lived near the crematorium.
He went on to say that Kotangde took the extreme step after the relatives of the dead had left the place. "It was the children who were playing nearby saw him and raised alarm," he added.
While the reason why he jumped onto the pyre is yet to be ascertained, a probe revealed that he was suffering from a mental ailment for the last three years and was also a heavy drinker.
Back in April 2017, the Indian Parliament decriminalised suicide by passing the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The act commenced in July 2018.
(With inputs from news agencies)
