Thiruvananthapuram, April 24 (BPNS)

In a tragic incident, a 23-year-old youth and a 16-year-old girl succumbed to death after the boy immolated himself after setting the girl on fire. The incident occurred at Kolangode in the Palakkad district of Kerala.

The deceased is Balasubramanian (23), a management graduate and a sixteen-year-old girl.

Balasubramaniam, according to his mother invited the girl to his home stating that it was his birthday today and set her on fire, and immolated himself. She said that the tragedy took place at 7 am at their home and she noticed this only when smoke and fire were emanating from Balasubramanian’s room.  Neighbours and the family doused the fire and took both the youth and the girl to Thrissur Medical college and then to a private hospital at Ernakulam. However, both succumbed to death at 2.20 pm on Sunday.

Police said that both the youth and the girl were in a love affair and of late the parents of the girl had forbidden her from continuing the affair. The youth’s mother told media persons that they had promised to get them married once the girl crosses the minimum age for marriage, 18.

Local people also said that they were in a love affair for some years and that they don’t know why the youth had invited the girl to his home and then set her on fire and immolated himself.

The bodies of both the youth and the girl would be subjected to postmortem at the Ernakulam Medical College hospital and after the inquest and other proceedings handed over to their families.