Woman held for role in Goregaon acid attack

Friday saw a second arrest in the Goregaon acid attack case when Manju Shaikh, mother of the main accused Naseer Shaikh, was taken into custody. The woman has been arrested on charges of conspiracy.

Friday saw a second arrest in the Goregaon acid attack case when Manju Shaikh, mother of the main accused Naseer Shaikh, was taken into custody. The woman has been arrested on charges of conspiracy.

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However, police are yet to apprehend the man who hurled the bottle full of acid at the 22-year-old victim on Tuesday.

They claim to have identified the suspect on the basis of a statement given by Naseer Shaikh who was arrested on Wednesday.

Police believe Shaikh hired the suspect to throw acid at the victim, Aarti Thakur.

"We have got the name of the second accused and will arrest him soon. We suspect that he resides in Malwani," said PM Karyakarte, senior police inspector with the Borivli railway police. Police are also in the process of preparing a sketch to help apprehend the accused.

Investigators are still unclear about the motive behind the attack. They suspect it to be a case of unrequited love, though Shaikh's family has rejected the theory. Shaikh himself has not been cooperating with the probe. Police are also checking whether Shaikh has a criminal record.

"So far we have not found any previous case against Shaikh. We have, however, asked the Malwani police to confirm the same," Karyakarte said. Police are also checking Shaikh's phone records in an attempt to narrow down on the accused.

Tuesday's attack was the third Thakur has survived in two months. In December, she was attacked by a blade-wielding man, following which she moved out of her Malwani residence to Nalasopara. In January, she was assaulted by two men with a blunt object.

Thakur managed to escape to safety. In the first instance, Thakur approached the police but chose not to file the report. In the second case, Thakur did not report the case to the police at all.