JOHOR BARU: A 45-year-old woman poured petrol on her boyfriend and set him alight following a heated argument at their rented room in a house in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai, here on Sunday.

G. Ganipathy, 32, suffered 95 per cent burns on his body and died 13 hours later at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital.

It is learnt that the incident occurred at 7am.

Johor Baru North district police chief Superintendent Mohd Akhir Ishak said Ganipathy was in the washroom when his girlfriend entered and poured petrol on him.

"She ran away after allegedly torching her boyfriend who turned into a ball of fire," he said.

Akhir did not rule out jealousy as the motive for the woman's action.

Police have classified the case as murder and are looking for the woman.

Another tenant of the house, a 33-year-old woman, said she heard Ganipathy's screams and helped to send him to the hospital.

Ganipathy, who worked at a nightclub in Jalan Trus here, was a father of three.

Akhir said the woman's housemate lodged a police report at the Taman Ungku Tun Aminah police station at 9.30pm.

A colleague of the victim from the nightclub, S. Chandran, 26, said Ganipathy had been living with the woman for eight months.

"His girlfriend works in an electronics factory in the city and they have been going out together."

Chandran said he had joined Ganipathy and two friends for supper about three hours prior to the incident.

"We had finished work and ate supper together about 4am. Ganipathy then went home.

"I received a call from a friend at 8am saying that Ganipathy had been set on fire and was hospitalised," said Chandran, who had been working with Ganipathy for six months.

Chandran said Ganipathy was a divorcee.

He had two sons aged 8 and 7 and a 5-year-old daughter. --NST