Bhubaneswar / Cuttack, June 13: A 19-year-old girl, who was being treated at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack for trying to immolate herself, succumbed to her injuries today.

Swadhina Mallick had reportedly doused herself with petrol and struck a match at the gate of a private engineering college on June 6 after failing in love.

However, the family of the girl has alleged that she was set on fire by the security staff of the college. But they are yet to lodge a formal complaint with the police.

Police said that they had registered a case against the girl who had attempted to kill on the day of the incident. “The girl’s self immolation attempt had followed a one-sided affair with a boy of the engineering college,” said a police officer.

The girl, an MBA student at a private college in the city, had set herself on fire on the campus of a private engineering college on the Phulnakhara-Niali road. Balianta police took her to Capital Hospital and she was later shifted to SCB College and Hospital at midnight. The doctors declared her dead around 10am today after a week-long treatment. “The patient had sustained more than 80 per cent burn injuries. We tried our best to save her but could not,” said a doctor.

Though the girl’s parents had earlier alleged that Swadhina’s childhood friend Prakash Kumar, an engineering student of that college, had set their daughter ablaze, they kept mum today. However, the girl’s sister Pravasini Mallick said that her sister had told her that the guard at the college gate was involved in the incident. “My sister even told me that there were some other persons involved in the incident,” she said.

Pravasini alleged that Prakash had made misleading statements on the day of the incident and also on the next day when Swadhina was admitted to SCB medical college and hospital.

“Prakash told me over phone that my sister was burning and when I asked him to take her to the hospital, he told me that he was not allowed on the spot. The next day he again told me that he was not there when the incident happened,” she said adding that they wanted a detailed police investigation and the culprits to be punished.

Police said they had been looking into the matter. “It was not possible for us to take the statement of the girl. We had told the doctors to take her statement. This has not come to us. Once we get it, we will analyse the matter and come to a conclusion,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nitinjit Singh.

However, a senior police officer who is part of the investigation team said it was a clear case of suicide. They had seized several documents from the security staff and conversation proof between the girl and the boy from Prakash.

The girl had tried to enter the engineering college on May 25 after 8.30pm. As the security staff did not allow her to get inside, she spent the whole night in front of the college. “Around 9.30pm on June 6, one of our security staff on duty near the canteen saw someone on fire running towards the hostels. He rushed towards the person and found a girl lying on a heap of sand in front of the boys’ hostel,” said a security staff who was deployed at the front gate on that day.

The girl had entered the college campus from behind the canteen where there was a barbed-wire fence. Police have seized a bottle used for carrying petrol, her shoes and a matchbox from the spot.