Tumakuru, 27 June

In a suspected case of self-harm, a man was completely charred to death inside a burning car on the national highway in Tumakuru district on Saturday, police said.

Though the forensic report is yet to be received, police suspected that the victim, identified as Nagendra (30) could have used a country bomb or a Molotov cocktail to set the car on fire near Kallambella in Sira Taluk.

Before the incident, he had hit a woman inside the car with a knife on her head. She, somehow, managed to come out of the vehicle.

The car driver, too, jumped out of the car in order to rescue the woman, and just then an explosion took place inside the car, which went up in flames in no time, they said.

According to police, Nagendra had booked a car from Siddapura near Jayanagar in Bengaluru.

Police said they got the information that Nagendra had forced the girl into the car.

As they were approaching Kallambella police station in the afternoon, the incident took place.

Speaking to reporters in Tumakuru, District Superintendent of Police Ashok KV said the police received information that a vehicle parked on the side of the highway had caught fire.

Police team immediately rushed to the spot and found that the driver of the vehicle and another woman, identified as Ramya, were outside the vehicle, while the car was engulfed in flames.

After enquiring into the sequence of events, police learnt that there had been an explosion and that a body was inside the vehicle.

“The driver and the woman informed us that the person inside had used an explosive, which resulted in the blast,” Ashok said.

“The preliminary information available to us is that a man named Nagendra had allegedly abducted a woman named Ramya by force from within the limits of the Siddapura Police Station in the Jayanagar area of Bengaluru. Based on that information, we have identified the individuals involved,” he added.

He added that during the course of the investigation, it will be ascertained how the explosion took place, and what caused it.