Ghaziabad: Two bikers threw a bottle of acid on a 32-year-old woman riding a scooter home on a busy road in Ghaziabad’s Sanjay Nagar on Monday evening, leaving her with critical injuries. The woman, a dietician who was returning home after dropping her four-year-old son off for tuition classes, is admitted to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi.
She came under attack around 5pm in P Block of Sanjay Nagar. Police said the bikers, who both wore helmets, intercepted the woman, who was riding a white Activa, and emptied a bottle of acid on her.
Police said the attack could be linked to an extra-marital relationship she had till recently with a man living in her neighbourhood. A senior police officer said the man had visited her house on July 30 and had threatened her with an acid attack. Later in the evening, an FIR was filed against Rahul Garg, who the woman’ in-laws named in their complaint, and two other unidentified persons at Kavi Nagar police station.
“The two men stopped her scooter. The one riding pillion got off and poured the bottle on her,” said Amit Malik, in-charge of the local police post. “The men tried to flee but their bike, possibly an Apache, collided against another vehicle. They got up, picked up the bike and drove off. A number of locals were standing at shops next to the road but none intervened.”
Police have received CCTV footage of the attack. “Even as the woman lay writhing in pain, she had awareness to ask us to pour milk on her that could offset the corrosive effect of acid. We got milk from a grocery store,” said Amit Sharma, a local resident. Anuj Raghav, a local, helped take the injured woman to hospital. Another resident boarded the auto with her.
The injured woman was taken to three private hospitals before finally being wheeled into Safdarjang from Max Superspecialty Hospital in Vaishali around 8.30 pm. “The patient sustained more than 50% burn injuries on her head, face, neck, back, chest and arms. Her condition is critical and she was placed on ventilator,” Max spokesperson Deepak Sharma told TOI.
The 32-year-old works as a consultant with various hospitals in Delhi and NCR. Her husband runs a private coaching institute, and teaches physics and chemistry to Plus 2 students, in the Sihani Gate area. He was at the coaching institute when she was attacked.
Ghaziabad SSP Vaibhav Krishna questioned the woman’s family members at Max hospital.
“Family members of the woman have pointed to personal enmity as the cause of the attack. The family had an enmity with a certain person in the recent past. This person had even threatened to harm her recently. None of the family members complained to police. However, we have got to the crux of the matter and expect to nab the accused soon,” said Krishna.
