Gurugram: 21-year-old woman loses vision in acid attack; accused held

GURUGRAM: A 21-year-old woman working with an e-commerce major lost vision in both her eyes and suffered critical burn injuries on her face and other parts of the body after her maternal cousin, who had allegedly been stalking for several days, threw acid at her near Fazilpur Chowk in Farrukhnagar area on Thursday.
At the time of the incident, the woman was talking to her mother on the phone outside the paying guest facility where she was staying. The accused, 25-year-old Ravinder Singh, was caught by neighbours and handed over to the cops.
During initial investigation, Ravinder, who is originally from Hisar and works with a private firm in Farrukhnagar, told police that he had married the woman in a secret ceremony two years ago, a claim she refuted. In her statement to police, she said Ravinder was pressuring her to marry him even though he already had a wife. “I told him several times not to follow me and that I was not interested, but he kept chasing me,” she alleged.
In his account to police, however, Ravinder said following differences, the two had started living separately for the past four months. The woman, he claimed, had moved out of their house, rented a room in a PG accommodation and found a job in the warehouse of an e-commerce company.
Ravinder told police he made several attempts over the past one month to contact the woman but she refused to meet or talk to him.
He said he suspected she had an affair with another man and, for the past one week, he had been following her and keeping a close watch on her activities and movements.
On Thursday, Ravinder was out stalking the woman again. He saw her alone when she stepped out of her PG facility on her mobile phone, crept close to her, caught hold of her hair and threw acid on her face. The woman cried out and shouted for help. The neighbours apprehended Ravinder just as he was trying to flee. The woman’s friends took her to a nearby private hospital, from where she was referred to SGT Hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.
A neighbour, who helped in catching the accused, said he was standing outside his house when he heard the woman’s cries. “I spotted a man trying to flee with a bottle in his hand. We caught him and called the cops,” he said.
Inspector Devender Singh, SHO, Farrukhnagar police station, said a case has been registered against Ravinder under IPC Section 326A (acid attack).
“The woman sustained serious burn injuries on her eyes, face, neck, hands and stomach,” he added.
A doctor from SGT Hospital said the acid attack had caused the maximum damage to the woman's eyes. “Eye specialists are treating her and have advised medicines and rest,” said the doctor.