Andhra Pradesh: Teenage girl held for setting ablaze several houses, including her own

Tirupati( Andhra Pradesh) [India], May 23 : A 19-year-old teenage girl has been arrested in Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati district for allegedly setting ablaze several houses, including her own, police said.

She did this to change her mother's behaviour and with the intention of leaving her village, according to the police.

"A girl named Keerthi aged 19 years with an intention to leave the village and change her mother's behaviour set ablaze houses in 12 different incidents in New Sanambatla village, Chandragiri mandal, Tirupati district," said, Venkat Rao ASP (admin) Tirupathi District.

According to police, "accidental" fires occurred in several houses in the village over the last month.

These incidents created panic among the villagers. Following this a case was registered and police personnel were deployed in Mufti.

"We arranged cameras, and while we were investigating the case we were also building the confidence in the villagers to not believe in any superstition. Higher authorities, District collector and MLA also visited the village to build confidence among the people," said Venkat Rao.

Venkat Rao said that at a certain stage of the investigation, police suspected a family in the village. Initially, the needle of the suspicion was towards a male member of the family.

"We took him (suspected person) for interrogation, even during that time fire wouldn't stop. Then we followed the one-by-one elimination method. Then we took custody of Keerthi. During the interrogation, she confessed to the crime," Venkat Rao said.

According to police, having failed intermediate exams she mostly stayed at home. Her mother allegedly has some "illicit relationships". To escape the "infamy" the teenage girl wanted to leave her village. To convince her family it was not safe in the village she decided to create the fire incidents, police said.

In this process, 12 fire incidents were reported of which three took place at her own house. "Angry" Keerthi also put fire to her mother's saree while she was sleeping, police said.

"We also took the samples of all the burnt material and sent them to ASFL authorities. They gave the opinion that no chemical substance was used," Venkat Rao said.

"A case has been registered under sections 435 and 506 IPC. Further investigation is on," he added.

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