24-year-old woman suffers burns to her face, body in attack by 41-yr-old stalker

New DelhiA 24-year-old woman sufferedserious burn injuriesto her face and other parts of her body after a 41-year-old man, who had been stalking her for the past six months, allegedly threw a corrosive liquid on her on a street near Ghonda Chowk in northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura on Tuesday morning, police said

New Delhi

The woman is being treated at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and is out of danger, but unfit to give her statement, police said (Representative photo)

A 24-year-old woman sufferedserious burn injuriesto her face and other parts of her body after a 41-year-old man, who had been stalking her for the past six months, allegedly threw a corrosive liquid on her on a street near Ghonda Chowk in northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura on Tuesday morning, police said. He was arrested later in the day.

The woman is being treated at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and is out of danger, but unfit to give her statement, police said. The suspect was enraged because the woman was avoiding him, and did not respond to his calls and messages, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Rahul Alwal said the Bhajanpura police station was informed about the incident at 7.10am on Tuesday, following which a PCR van admitted her to Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital. “At the hospital, it was learnt that the 24-year-old, who lives as a tenant in Ghonda area, was on her way to Jafrabad, where she worked in a thread cutting factory... a man, whom she knows for six months, threw a diluted corrosive liquid on her and fled. The 41-year-old accused was later arrested from northeast Delhi,” said Alwal.

Police have withheld the name of the arrested man so as to not reveal the identity of the victim. The man developed a grudge against her because she was ignoring him, and suspected her of being involved with someone else.

“The alleged stalker’s anger was triggered a few days ago when he saw her riding a motorcycle with another man. He works as a painter at a bus workshop. He disclosed that he fetched sulphuric acid from the battery of a bus in a bottle and threw it on the woman,” the officer said.

Police said the woman earlier lived in the same building where the accused had been living for many years. He was married in 2010, but his wife died in 2015, and his son lives with his in-laws.