A 20-year-old woman, who was about to join the state police constabulary, sustained burns when two motorcycle-borne men attacked her with acid in Unchahar area of Rae Bareli district on Tuesday morning, police said.

The victim was a student of BSc (third year) at the Industrial Training Institute and was about to join the Uttar Pradesh police as a constable in a few weeks, they added. The name of the woman has been withheld to protect her identity.

Circle officer, Dalmau, Vineet Singh, who is supervising the investigation, said the attackers intended to throw acid on the woman’s face but she suffered injuries on her neck, back and chest as she turned around in the nick of time.

“She was rushed to the emergency ward of Rae Bareli district hospital and was later shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU). According to doctors, she has suffered 30 per cent burns and her condition is being monitored,” he said. Singh said the initial investigation revealed that the woman was going to her institute on a bicycle when two men on a motorcycle intercepted her near Gauriya Baba turn at around 9.30 am. “Some eyewitness told us that the two men threw acid at the woman after having a short conversation with her. This suggests that she was familiar to the accused men. So far, she has not revealed the identity of the attackers,” he added.

Singh said the woman’s brother had lodged an FIR against unidentified men under Section 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Unchahar police station.

This is the second incident of acid attack in Uttar Pradesh in last two weeks. On April 4, a 20-year-old woman constable was attacked with acid by four men in Mathura. The incident occurred when she was waiting for an auto-rickshaw to reach the place of her duty at Sri Krishna Janambhoomi in Mathura. The police later arrested five people, including the prime accused Sanjay Singh. Police said Sanjay knew the woman constable and was forcing her to marry him.

First Published: Apr 17, 2019 03:36 IST