Kalaburagi, Dec 6: A 39-year-old woman from Hyderabad was charred to death when the car she was travelling in along with her husband and their two children suddenly caught fire in Bidar district on Thursday morning.
Kalyan Uday Kumar Naidu was said to be suffering from a spinal-cord injury and she had been to Udagir in Maharashtra to seek help from an ayurvedic practitioner. The accident occurred at Nirna Cross, near Humnabad in Bidar district, when the family was returning to Hyderabad.
Police said the woman couldn't remove the seatbelt and hop out of the burning car because of the spinal-cord injury. Her husband is Uday Kumar, 48, a share-market adviser in Hyderabad, and their children are Kumar, 10, and Gagan, 7.
Chitaguppa police officer Sharanabasappa Bajantri told TOI the family stayed in Humnabad in the night before resuming the journey to Hyderabad in the morning. Uday stopped his car - a Hyundai Santro - at a petrol station for refuel.
Since it was unusually cold in the morning, he switched on the heater in the car and drove for about 10km only to find smoke coming out of the bonnet.
Uday pulled the car to the kerb and got down to inspect the engine. His children followed him, leaving Kalyan in the car. Within seconds of Uday opening the bonnet to find the source of the problem, the engine suddenly erupted in flames, which raced through all electrical circuits and devices reducing them to cinder. As they watched in horror, the flames engulfed rest of the car, trapping Kalyan alive.
A nearly immobile Kalyan couldn't unlock the seatbelt or the door. Uday and children shouted for help from passersby, besides calling in ambulance, fire services and police. But it was too late. Police have registered a case and sent the body for autopsy.
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