Mum Set Fire On Two Babies To Make Headlines, Blamed Spontaneous Combustion

Rahul Karnan and his newborn brother were admitted to hospital in two
separate cases of spontaneous combustion, Nedimoliyur, Villupuram,
India.

The boys' mother Rajeshwari Karnan claimed her babies spontaneously
burst into flames - the first incident took place in 2013 when her
then-3-months-old son Rahul was rushed to hospital with extensive burn
injuries. The baby allegedly went on to suffer three more similar
accidents following which the village community ostracised Rajeswari
and her family.

In January this year Mrs Karnan's 10-day-old child, who has not been
named, was also admitted to hospital. His mother claims his feet had
spontaneously combusted while she was in the bath - the boy had about
10 percent burn damage to his feet. The baby has been in hospital for
more than a month, now he is stable, ready for discharge but doctors
are refusing to release a baby back to his mother.

Medics fear Rajeshwari is abusing her children in order to get
attention. This condition is called Munchausen by proxy syndrome - a
mental illness whereby a parent seeks to harm their child to get
attention. Hospital dean Narayana Babu said,"All tests reveal he is
completely normal. The parents went through psychiatric counselling
and were found to be normal."

Medics still question the spontaneous combustion explanation, pointing
out that the phenomenon has never been proven to exist and given the
large amount of water the average human body contains. However, there
are several hypotheses regarding potential causes and mechanisms,
including victim behavior and habits, alcohol consumption and
proximity to potential sources of ignition, as well as the behavior of
fires that consume melted fats.