Wayanad: A debt-ridden businessman who died after allegedly setting fire to himself in Wayanad’s Mananthavady blamed a trader for driving him to the extreme step in a video posted on Facebook shortly before his death. The man allegedly set fire to himself, his wife and three children inside a car and crashed the vehicle into the trader’s house late on Thursday night.

While the businessman, Sajeer, died on the spot, his wife sustained around 22 per cent burn injuries, and their three children suffered minor burns. The children are being treated at the Government Medical College Hospital in Mananthavady, while the woman was shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode as a precaution.

In the video, Sajeer, 42, a native of Vallithodu in Iritty, Kannur district, named a trader from Mananthavady as being responsible for what he described as the events that led to the tragedy. He claimed that he had once run nearly 10 shops across border towns in Kerala and Karnataka, including Kutta and Tholpetty, and owned several buildings. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, he said, he employed more than 60 people and had not faced any issues with staff.

Sajeer also displayed a list of people to whom he said he owed large sums of money and appealed to the public, including customers of his shops, to ensure that the trader settled the dues. He attempted to justify his actions by stating that he did not want to leave his wife and children behind to face hardships in his absence.

In the video, he alleged that the trader had sold a building without his knowledge or consent, after which the new owner changed the name of his bakery. According to Sajeer, the building had been leased for ₹25 lakh, with a clause allowing the lender to either legally take possession of or sell the property. However, he claimed that he had insisted the building should not be sold or the shop’s name changed without his consent. “I would have settled the debts if I had been given some more time,” he said in the video.

Meanwhile, police have launched an investigation and a team is preparing the inquest. Mananthavady Inspector Rafeeq P said a police team had gone to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where the woman was shifted from the Mananthavady medical college in the early hours as a precaution.

Doctors at KMCH informed police that she has sustained 22 per cent burn injuries and that her condition is not critical. The transfer, the inspector said, was precautionary, as burn injuries can become life-threatening due to infections in the days that follow.

On whether a case would be registered against the trader named in the video for abetment of suicide, the inspector said the individual’s role was not yet clear. He noted that the video primarily refers to the alleged change of the shop’s name as the trigger for Sajeer’s actions, and that a decision could be taken only after recording the woman’s statement. Police added that the three children are safe and out of danger.