Nashik: A 65 year old woman was set on fire for not voting for a Shiv Sena candidate by three men in the Maharashtra Assembly polls. In a police complaint, the woman alleged that those men set her on fire for not voting for a candidate whom they were backing. The woman is battling for life with 80% burns.

 Zelubai Janananth Wahle, the victim hails from Babhulgaon Khurd village in Yeola which is around 90 Kms from Nashik. On the basis of her complaint, the police arrested

Ashok Bornare (38), Pandurang Bornare (45) and Nandkishore Bhurak (40) on Friday for attempt to murder and criminal intimidation. They were produced before a Yeola court and remanded in police custody till October 20.

Wable said the three accused met her on Wednesday afternoon while she was on her way to cast her vote. She said they told her to press the “third button” on the EVM, which was in the name of Shiv Sena's Sambhaji Pawar.

Wable told cops that the three met her again outside the polling booth and threatened to kill her, saying they had seen she had pressed the second button, which was in the name of NCP's Chhagan Bhujbal.

She then told cops that three men came to her house on Thursday around 8pm and abused her. Then, Bhurak held her while Ashok Bornare emptied a jerry can of kerosene on her and Pandurang Bornare set her ablaze.

DSP Naresh Meghrajani said, “Prima facie, the woman's version doesn't appear convincing. Things will be clear during the interrogation of the accused in police custody.”

Wable's son, Raghunath, a farmer, said his mother was accusing people who had come to save her. He said she had told him that her saree had caught fire while she was cooking inside the house.

SP Sanjay Mohite told TOI, “We will verify every aspect of various statements. According to the victim, the accused entered the polling booth and saw her cast her vote. If that was the case, representatives of other parties would have objected. All these things would be part of the investigations. Even if she retracts her statement, it would not affect our investigations.”

Police said that one Santosh Garge, related to Wable, and who lives near her home, heard her cries for help and tried to douse the fire by wrapping her in a quilt. He later called Wable's daughter, who lives in another village, and the matter was reported to the police. Wable was taken to the Yeola rural hospital and shifted to the Nashik civil hospital at around 1.30 am on Friday.

DSP Meghrajani said, “The three were arrested on the basis of the woman's statement. There's no eyewitness and we also have to ascertain how the three accused came to know that she had not pressed the button they had told her to. None of the three men has any political affiliation or criminal record. They told us they were not even at the spot where the incident took place.”

Of the three accused, Ashok Bornare is an ex-servicemen while the other two are farmers. Wable's son Raghunath said, “There's no point involving innocent villagers in the case. I spoke to my mother, who said she was cooking inside the house when the ‘pallu' of her saree caught fire. She ran out of the house after that. My mother may have wrongly taken the names of the three men when she was in pain.”