Acid attack on a 17-year-old girl in the capital shakes the country
“Two men on a bike came and attacked the girl with an acid-like substance. She has sustained eight percent burns and her condition is stable."
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New Delhi, Dec 14: A 17-year-old girl, who was going to school with her younger sister, was attacked with an acid-like substance by two bike-borne men near her home in Delhi’s Dwarka area Wednesday morning. According to the police, the incident took place at around 7.30 am and was reported to the police at around 9 am.
“Two men on a bike came and attacked the girl with an acid-like substance. She has sustained eight percent burns and her condition is stable."
"We have detained one man whose involvement in the incident is suspected. The other, who we suspect to be the main suspect, has not been detained yet. We have formed multiple teams to look for him,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Harsha Vardhan. The girl’s father said they don’t know who these attackers were. “The police are investigating the case. My daughter’s condition is critical. They threw acid on her face. Her eyes are affected. I asked my daughter about the incident. She doesn’t know much. She said he came and threw the acid… She was blinded and couldn’t see the person. Doctors are looking at her,” he said. “She was studying in Class 12. If I had known about the man, I would have taken care of and dropped her to school. She left around 7.30 am and the incident took place five minutes later. They were going to their school. My younger daughter said there were two men and their faces were covered. After the incident, my younger daughter came running home and informed us,” he added. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, expressed shock at the incident, which was caught on camera. “This cannot be tolerated. How did the accused get the nerve to do this? The accused should get the strictest punishment possible. The safety of every daughter in Delhi is important to us,” Kejriwal said. Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal expressed concern over the incident and questioned the apathy of authorities. “Acid was thrown at a schoolgirl near Dwarka Mor. Our team is reaching the hospital to help the victim. Will get justice for the daughter. The Delhi Commission for Women has been fighting for years to ban acid in the country. When will the governments wake up?” Maliwal’s tweet, roughly translated from Hindi, read.
The Supreme Court directed states and the Centre to regulate the use of acid across the country to stop such attacks in 2017. The ban, however, has been largely ineffective with acid and similar corrosive substances openly available in the market.