Indian woman burned to death after leaving boyfriend

NEW DELHI: A father and son have been arrested in India for allegedly burning a woman alive over a soured relationship, authorities said Monday.

The 18-year-old was beaten by her former boyfriend and his father before being doused in kerosene and set alight in a district of Rajasthan state in western India, police said.

“She was attacked by the father-son duo and later burnt alive,” local police officer Manish Charan told a wire service.

He said she was returning home when the pair accosted her late Saturday in a local market.

The ex-lover poured kerosene on the victim, but she was unsure who set her ablaze, the officer said quoting her dying statement.

She died from severe burns in hospital on Sunday.

The woman’s family has accused the man of stalking her after the couple broke up some time ago.

Reported crimes against women have risen dramatically in India in recent years and particularly following the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi in 2012.

In a neighboring Rajasthan district on Sunday, a 70-year-old woman was beaten to death by a villager who accused her of witchcraft.