Acid injected in eyes of 6-month-old Kolkata girl over family feud

A six-month-old girl in Kolkata fights for life and may lose her eyesight forever, even if she survives vengeful relatives’ act of injecting acid into her eyes to settle scores in an old family feud.

As artisans gave shape to the eyes of Durga’s idol on Mahalaya, the auspicious day that heralds the weeklong festival dedicated to the goddess, doctors told the girl’s family that the brutal acid attack has blinded the child. And she might need a miracle to survive.

Swapna Chakraborty was attacked on the night of September 3 at her home in Surya Sen Colony, South 24 Parganas district.

The child’s father, Jayanta Chakraborty, filed a police complaint thereafter.

But officers at Sonarpur police station could not say whether any investigation was carried out or arrests made.

“I am conducting a raid right now and cannot talk,” Paresh Chandra Roy, officer in-charge of Sonarpur police station said on Tuesday, refusing to answer queries on the acid attack.

Chakraborty, a 35-year-old jobless village priest surviving on alms, took Swapna to local hospitals where doctors could do little to save her eyes.

She was then taken to SSKM hospital, West Bengal’s biggest state-run medical institution, and the National Medical College and Hospital (NMCH).

Doctors in both hospitals tried to save the child’s eyes, but the acid had done its work already.

“The right eye was completely damaged and the left is severely infected. She may lose it too. The infection has spread to other parts of the head. It may lead to severe complication,” said Dr Bimalendu Saha, deputy superintendent at NMCH.

The child’s father filed a complaint at the office of the district superintendent of police on September 15.

He named seven members of his family, including his mother Sabitri Chakraborty, as accused and conspirators. He alleged that his wife, too, was attacked with acid and assaulted.