Puri (Odisha) [India], August 3 : The brother of the minor girl who succumbed to injuries after allegedly being set on fire by miscreants expressed grief over her demise and said that she was "fine" till Saturday morning.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday, the victim's brother said, "Yesterday morning we were told she was talking and was fine. We don't know what happened in the afternoon, she was in a lot of discomfort and was put on a ventilator. By the evening, we had lost her."
Mourning her death, he said that the family had hoped she would return home.
"We cannot even express the extent of our grief. She was a full-of-life 15-year-old girl. She has struggled a lot; she stayed in the hospital for 14 days. We always had hope that even though it would take time for her to recover, she would be fine and come home," he said.
The mortal remains of the 15-year-old will be to Bhubaneswar today for her last rites, officials said.
A post-mortem of the girl who was set on fire on July 19 in Balanga, Odisha, who succumbed to her injuries a day ago at AIIMS Delhi, was done at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, and her body has now been handed over to her family.
According to the police, the minor girl went out with her friends, but she was allegedly abducted midway and taken to the riverside, where she was set on fire. The victim reached someone's house from the incident spot, after which she was taken to the hospital by her cousin.
The girl, who had sustained 75 per cent burns, was airlifted from AIIMS Bhubaneswar to AIIMS New Delhi and was admitted to the Burn ICU for treatment.