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Lack of lawyer for accused delays trial in acid attack case
The man had planned a similar attack in 2020 and procured nine litres of sulphuric acid, said an investigator, adding that he was arrested from Tiruvannamalai.
Bengaluru Police commissioner Pratap Reddy said on Friday that the trial of the acid attack case reported in the city last April has been delayed as no lawyer was coming forward to represent the accused. A fast-track trial was requested in the case.
Speaking to the media, Reddy added that as per the law, if the accused was not represented and vakalat was not filed for him, the case would not proceed further, and therefore they would not get bail. “If an advocate represents the accused, the court proceedings will move faster, and he will get punishment faster,” the commissioner said.
The incident occurred on April 28, 2022. The accused, Nagesh Babu, waiting in an autorickshaw near the workplace of the 25-year-old girl in Bengaluru’s Sunkadakatte, chased and poured acid on her. The victim sustained 35% burn injuries.
The man had planned a similar attack in 2020 and procured nine litres of sulphuric acid, said an investigator, adding that he was arrested from Tiruvannamalai.
Police said that when the accused came to know that her sister was engaged, he feared that the victim would also get married soon. The decision to attack her with acid was not impulsive, said the charge sheet adding that he had planned a similar attack in 2020.
According to police, he procured acid by April 20. However, he did not attack her immediately. “He approached her once again on April 27. He asked her to marry him, and this time the girl firmly refused his proposal. That day even the manager of the company where the girl was working, too, warned him to stay away. When the girl informed her parents about his visit, they approached the attacker’s older brother,” said an investigator.
Following this, on April 28, he went to the victim’s workplace and attacked her with the sample bottles he had procured. “Hours before attacking her, he had sold all the material available in his garment factory and took cash payments. We believe that he had been planning this attack for a long time. A few years ago, he sold some land in his hometown and started a garment factory in Bengaluru. In the past few months, he sold most of the equipment in the factory,” the officer added.
Policesaid that soon after attacking the woman, he went to his older brother and told him what had happened. The older brother and another friend told Nagesh Babu to surrender before the police, but he told them that he would surrender only before the court. With his intention, he went to a sessions court and magistrate court in the city.
When the lawyers told him that there is no option available for him to surrender as the FIR had not reached the court, he fled Bengaluru, police said.
A senior official of Bengaluru’s bar council who didn’t want to be named said they will talk to the police to ensure “the victim gets justice”.
