The victim’s father pleads for justice in front of superintendent of police Kuldeep Dwivedi outside Bokaro General Hospital on Monday. Picture by Pankaj Singh

Bokaro, Aug. 20: A 23-year-old woman from Bihar was set on fire allegedly by her husband and in-laws in Bokaro on Saturday because her parents could not meet their long-standing demand for a four-wheeler.

Anuradha Devi has suffered 65 per cent burns and is fighting for life at Bokaro General Hospital. Her husband — Kumar Vikram (29), a senior assistant general manager with a Delhi-based MNC — his parents and younger brother went missing after they dumped the woman on hospital doorstep around 7pm on Saturday. Anuradha, who regained consciousness on Sunday evening, recorded her statement with police. The couple got married in 2010.

While Anuradha’s parents are based in Darbhanga, Kumar Vikram is the son of a Dhanbad college professor, R.S. Singh. Since her husband worked in Delhi, she stayed at Dugda Colony in Bokaro with mother-in-law Anandi Devi and brother-in-law Gautam. During their wedding, her in-laws had taken around Rs 5 lakh in cash and gold ornaments from her parents. But they kept nagging for a car, which Anuradha’s father Satyendra Singh had apparently promised the groom.