Ahmedabad: Moments after allegedly setting a woman’s scooter on fire, a rickshaw driver collapsed mid-escape and died. Police suspect 33-year-old Nitin Chauhan suffered a cardiac arrest. The incident occurred around 4.30pm on Thursday outside the woman’s house in Rukshmani Vallabh Society near Kenyug Crossroads in Satellite. Chauhan had fallen in love with the woman, Satellite police said. According to the complaint filed, her family were among his regular passengers and had stopped calling him after finding out about his liking for the woman. Chauhan was allegedly furious and set her vehicle alight.Giving details, police said that soon after parking her scooter and entering the house, she smelt something burning and rushed out with a family member. They saw the scooter’s front engulfed in flames. Neighbours doused the fire with water. The family member allegedly noticed a man in a red shirt and black trousers running towards the society’s common plot.They followed him and found him lying unresponsive near the plot. A matchbox and a small plastic bottle containing a small quantity of a liquid smelling like petrol were found near him.Someone from the gathered crowd around him called an ambulance. Paramedics declared Chauhan dead. He was a resident of Juhapura.Inspector V J Chaudhary of Satellite police said Chauhan appeared to have suffered a cardiac arrest while fleeing. “He had been in poor health for a long time and was also addicted to alcohol, which had affected his liver. He may have ran 100m before he collapsed,” he said.Chaudhary said investigators suspect his one-sided love could be the reason behind the alleged act, although the exact motive is being verified.A forensic team will examine material recovered from the spot, while a postmortem will establish the exact cause of Chauhan’s death, he added.
