Honeymoon Horror: Newlywed Bride Engulfed In Fireball After Staff Pour Mystery Liquid On Barbecue, Leaving Her With 60% Burns As Husband Fights To Save Her

A young couple’s dream honeymoon in the Himalayan foothills turned into a living nightmare in seconds when a barbecue flare-up left the bride fighting for her life.

Nikita Saha, who had married Souvik Das just weeks earlier, was sitting with her husband at Sittong Aura Homestay in the picturesque hill village of Sittong, Darjeeling district, on the evening of 13 September when disaster struck.

The pair had asked staff to arrange a barbecue. Around 8.30 pm, a homestay worker cooking corn poured an unidentified flammable liquid onto the fire. The fluid splashed onto Nikita. Instantly she was engulfed in flames.

Horrifying CCTV footage, which has since gone viral, shows the couple sitting near the grill. A man approaches with a can, tips liquid onto the flames, and a fireball explodes towards Nikita. She collapses as the fire consumes her. Souvik lunges forward to beat out the flames with his bare hands and later his shirt. The worker who poured the liquid is also seen stripping off his T-shirt in a desperate bid to help.

‘Immediately she was engulfed in fire,’ Souvik later told reporters in Siliguri. He suffered burns to his own hand while trying to rescue his wife.

What followed, the husband says, was almost as shocking as the fire itself. The homestay had no fire extinguisher and no first-aid facilities. There were no vehicles available. The couple waited hours in the remote hills before they could get a car to take Nikita down to Siliguri. The journey itself took another three hours.

Doctors say Nikita suffered burns to around 60 per cent of her body. She remains in critical condition in intensive care at a private hospital in Siliguri. Family members have described her as being ‘on the verge of dying’.

Souvik, from Chopra in Uttar Dinajpur, has lodged a complaint at Kurseong police station accusing the homestay of gross negligence. He alleges staff poured an unknown chemical onto the fire and then failed to provide any emergency help. Police say they are examining the CCTV footage and investigating whose lapse caused the blaze. The homestay owner could not be reached for comment.

The couple had booked the stay online. It was their first trip together after a love marriage. What should have been a romantic evening in the hills instead became a scene of panic, screams for help, and a desperate race against time that may haunt them for the rest of their lives.