Bizarre Crime of the Week : Investigation Discovery: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Who Has Been Cheated On!

January 12, 2009

The original quotation that the title of this article was taken from, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or, sometimes, hell hath no fury like a woman spurned, is actually from a 1697 play called The Mourning Bride, by William Congreve. Given the nature of this article, it seemed appropriate to use a variation of that line from the play here. Rajini Narayan, 44, of Adelaide, South Australia, seems to fit in there somewhere because on Monday, December 7, 2008, she allegedly set fire to her husband's genitalia while he was sleeping after she purportedly saw him hugging another woman and presumed that he was having an affair. Her husband, Satish Narayan, 47, an engineer by profession, lived for 20 days after the fire attack, but succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, December 27, 2008.

It was about 5:30 a.m. when Rajini Narayan poured alcohol on her husband's genitals and lit the flammable liquid. Shocked into waking by the fire and the intense pain, Mr. Narayan bolted upright and leapt out of bed, knocking over the bottle of alcohol that his wife had left nearby. The additional alcohol, of course, only served to fuel the fire, and it quickly spread over Mr. Narayan's body as well as throughout the couple's townhouse. Mrs. Narayan, along with the couple's three children, escaped unharmed from the blaze. By the time Satish had been rescued, he had endured severe burns to 85 percent of his body. He was rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital where he remained until his death.

It was later determined that the blaze had caused approximately 1 million Australian dollars in damage to the Narayan's townhouse and an adjacent structure. Mrs. Narayan was, of course, arrested; she was initially charged with arson, three counts of endangering her children's lives and causing serious injuries to her husband. Following Mr. Narayan's death, the charges against Mrs. Narayan were upgraded to include murder.

According to Lucy Boord, one of the prosecutors, Rajini Narayan allegedly confessed to neighbors that she had set her husband's genitals on fire after learning of the affair she believed he was engaged in. Boord urged the court not to release Rajini on bail without first having the murder suspect undergo a psychological evaluation.

"She poses a substantial risk to others given her flagrant offending," Boord said to the court. "Witnesses also heard the accused make references to using a police officer's gun on herself, and references to whether she should be alive at all."

"She told neighbors, 'my husband loves another woman - he hugs her,'" Boord continued. "'I'm a jealous wife. His penis should belong to me. I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else. It's just his penis I wanted to burn. I didn't mean this to happen,'" Boord quoted Rajini as saying.

Boord's statement was substantiated by a neighbor of the Narayans who had visited Rajini at the Adelaide Women's Prison. The neighbor had been providing support to Rajini, sometimes praying with her.

"She wanted him to live," the neighbor said Rajini had told her prior to learning of her husband's death. "I didn't know them very well, but I've got to know her now through visiting her in prison. The (couple's) children are beautiful, and it's just a terrible tragedy."

In the meantime, Rajini sits in a cell in the women's prison awaiting trial while authorities attempt to sort out the case and decide what must be done with her three children. We will keep you updated on this bizarre case as additional details become available.

Photo Credit: iStock

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