The Imambada police have booked the husband, Tejrao Ukandrao Patil, 27, on charges of torturing his wife Savita and setting her on fire which resulted in her death. Tejrao, the victim's mother Prabhabai Purshottam Gajbhiye, 40, and landlady Vimlabai Kamble, 60 are undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College.

According to Imambada police, Prabhabai Gajbhiye had gone to her daughter's home on Sunday night to convince son in-law Tejrao to stop torturing Savita and to assure him that his demands would be met in future. But Tejrao was not in a mood to relent. Instead, he got infuriated and doused Savita withkerosene before setting her on fire. He intended to teach Savita's mother a lesson, police said. Shocked by Tejrao's action and watching Savita in flames, Prabhabai rushed out of the home to seek help.

She came across landlady Vimlabai Gajbhiye and begged her to help. At that time, Savita who was engulfed in flames too rushed out of the house to save herself. Tejrao who by then returned to his senses, ran inside and came out with a blanket and wrapped it around Savita in a bid to extinguish the fire. Prabhabai and Vimlabai too brought a bucketful of water and poured on Savita. During the extinguishing mission, Tejrao, Prabhabai and Vimlabai sustained burn injuries as their own clothes too caught fire. Four-year-old Vrishab, Tejrao's son, who was present during the incident also received burn injuries.

Hearing cries from the family members, residents of nearby houses rushed to help Savita, Tejrao, Prabhabai and Vimlabai. They later rushed them to the Government Medical College where Savita breathed herlast while undergoing treatment. Tejrao, Prabha and Vimla are battling for life.

According to Imambada police, Tejrao, a resident of Tishti village in Kalmeshwar tehsil, had recently shifted to Nagpur at the insistence of Savita's parents. Here, he had started running an autorickshaw to earn his livelihood and intended to purchase a house soon. It was for this purpose that he demanded Rs 50,000 from Savita's parents, since he could not raise the amount through his meagre earnings.

It is learnt that finding her parents helpless to raise money, Savita recently made her parents' position clear before Tejrao and had also asked him not to trouble her parents anymore. This had strained the relations between husband and wife and also between Tejrao and Savita's parents.