‘Needs to be seen if it happened’: Adityanath on acid attack survivor
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has said it remains to be proved if a gang rape survivor’s allegations of yet another acid attack on her is true
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday expressed doubts over an alleged acid attack on a gang rape victim, saying “it needs to be seen if actually an attack happened”.
The chief minister’s comments came a day after the woman said she was attacked with acid by two unidentified assailants at her hostel in Lucknow’s Aliganj area.
“It needs to be seen if actually an attack happened. Investigations are on. I think by evening we will know if the attack happened or not,” he told a private news channel in Varanasi.
“This turns out to be the sixth acid attack on the woman. I had visited her at the KGMU and then we made arrangments for her treatment and security. She was kept in a secure place under police protection,” he said, referring to his visit to the King George Medical University in March following an earlier acid attack.
“Law is for protection of people, but if someone misuses it for whatever reasons or to victimise someone, then all will act on such misusers too,” he added.
Police said she suffered injuries on the right side of her face and shoulder and is undergoing treatment at the trauma centre of the KGMU.
Sandeep Singh, an armed constable deployed for her security, was in the waiting hall of the hostel when the incident occured.
The woman, a mother of two, is pursuing court cases against two men who had allegedly gang-raped her in 2008.
The Rai Bareli police have detained Bhondu Singh and Guddu Singh, the two men accused of gang raping her, late on Saturday night.
The accused were arrested earlier but released on bail.
The BJP stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, riding on a promise of ensuring women’s safety in the state which has one of the highest rates of crime against women in India.
The repeated attacks on the woman, first targeted with acid in 2011, also indicated the easy availability of the liquid in the state despite a Supreme Court ban on its open sale.
Read| Woman who survived gangrape, acid attack forced to drink acid on train
Acid attack was made a separate category of crime in 2013 amid growing incidents of revenge on women who spurn sexual advances or reject marriage proposals.
On Saturday night, the two assailants allegedly entered the hostel by scaling the perimeter wall of the hostel and threw acid on her.
Vivek Tripathi, Aliganj circle officer, said video footage from cameras installed at the hostel and commercial establishments in the area were being scanned to identify the accused.
The woman works at Lucknow’s Sheroes Hangout Café, which is run by several acid attack survivors. Her husband and two kids live in Rae Bareli.
The woman had lodged at least eight FIRs against the two accused and their accomplices.
