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Odisha woman, whose husband threw acid on her weeks after wedding, dies
The Odisha police said the woman from the coastal district of Balasore was being treated for acid burns at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, where she died on Sunday evening.
BHUBANESWAR: A 20-year-old woman who had been fighting for her life for the past week died in Odisha died on Sunday evening, police said. The woman was the target of an acid attack by her husband after she found out that he was already married and walked out on him.
Police said the woman from the coastal district of Balasore, Banita Singh, was being treated for acid burns at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, where she died on Sunday evening.
Her husband, the prime suspect in the murder case, is on the run, police said.
Balasore superintendent of police (SP) Sagarika Nath said Banita Singh got married to Chandan Rana, a 32-year-old hawker of artificial jewellery.
Banita Singh, however, left his house after discovering that he was already married and had children and went back home.
“On February 20, accused Chandan Rana reached Bhimpura village with a bottle of acid and threw the contents on his wife Banita Singh as she refused to come back with him… The accused also threw acid at the woman’s elder sister and her two children,” Sagarika Nath added.
Banita Singh was initially admitted to the Balasore district hospital and later shifted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack in view of the grievous nature of her injuries.
Nath said the police are trying to trace Rana.
His first wife who helped him evade the police after the incident has been arrested.
Acid Survivors and Women Welfare Foundation, a non-profit dealing with acid attack cases in Odisha said 70 acid attack cases have been reported in the state between 2011 and 2019.
In May last year, a Jagatsinghpur district court sentenced a former soldier and his associate to 14 years in prison on charges of throwing acid on a 17-year-old college girl in 2009. Pramodini Roul suffered almost 80% burns but survived the attack. In 2021, she married her friend.
