Acid attack victims yet to reveal identity

ARA: Bike-borne miscreants threw acid on a man and a woman under mysterious circumstances near Kasturba school at Amorja on Saturday when they were travelling by a motorbike on the Ara-Sasaram state highway under the Charpokhari police station area of Bhojpur district. Both the acid attack victims, in their early 20s, are undergoing treatment at Sadar hospital, Ara.

For the reasons best known to them, both did not give any statement or lodged any formal complaint despite several attempts by the police till Sunday afternoon. They were also reluctant to disclose their identity so far.

However, police sources said the man is said to be a resident of Dinara in Rohtas district and suffered minor burn injury on his back while the woman is said to be a resident of Bikramganj and had her hands and shoulder burned by acid.

Talking to this correspondent on Sunday, Charpokhari SHO Saurav Kumar said, “Both the victims have not given any statement to the police. When we ask, the duo only say they will give it later. Our investigation can only make progress when they make a statement or lodge a complaint.”

When asked about some reports that both the victims made contradictory statements and constantly kept changing their statements before the locals, the SHO said they were extremely cagey about revealing their true identity. He said police cannot start investigation on the basis of hearsay until the victims themselves make a statement to the police.