A 20-year-old woman immolated herself inside the Taluk office in Kancheepuram on Sunday evening, protesting the death sentence awarded to Santhan, Murugan and G. Perarivalan alias Arivu, convicted of plotting the 1991 assassination of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
P. Senkodi died within two hours after she set herself on fire. She emptied two litres of petrol from a bottle before setting herself ablaze.
Police sources said eyewitnesses had noticed a young woman, dressed in a salwar kameez, walking into the office around 5.45 p.m. Minutes later, they heard a woman's cries and rushed to the spot and noticed her engulfed in a ball of fire. Residents and the skeleton staff of government offices, including the police and fire stations, put out the fire. A government ambulance stationed nearby rushed her to the Government General Hospital, where she succumbed to injuries around 7.30 p.m.
A file photo of P. Senkodi who immolated hereself protesting against death sentence to convicts in Rajiv murder case.