BENGALURU: A 32-year-old woman was attacked with acid by one of her colleagues in Kumaraswamy Layout, south Bengaluru, on Friday morning.
Ahmed Ulla, 34, threw toilet cleaner diluted with acid on the woman’s face and fled. The woman, a divorcee with three children, was first shifted to an eye hospital in JP Nagar and then to Victoria Hospital. She has suffered around 5% burns on the face and shoulder. This is the second acid attack on a woman in Bengaluru in just about six weeks.
Acting swifly, cops arrested the accused Ahmed, a resident of Goripalya off Mysuru Road. The two are colleagues in an incense factory near Iliyasnagar in KS Layout.
Dr Ramesha KT, head of THE department, plastic surgery, Victoria Hospital, told TOI: “She is speaking and reacting well to treatment. Her eyes were tested by an ophthalmologist. There is some change in her voice, which could be the result of the toilet cleaner entering her throat. Overall, she has less than 5% burn injuries on her face and shoulder. Fortunately, there are no deep burn injuries as of now.”
Ahmed, a father of two, wanted to marry the woman. But she turned down his repeated proposals, police said.
On Friday morning, Ahmed asked the woman to come outside the factory saying he wanted to talk to her. They had walked for about 400 metres when he proposed once again. The woman turned him down and started to walk back when Ahmed threw the toilet cleaner he was carrying in a plastic bottle at her, and fled. Passersby and traffic cops shifted the woman to the eye hospital as she kept screaming she could not see anything.
In her statement to the police, the woman said that she had made it clear to Ahmed she was not keen on marrying him. “I have three children and my daughter is in high school. I cannot marry again as my daughter may feel uncomfortable. For me, her future is important.”
DCP (south) Harish Pandey said the woman’s refusal to marry Ahmed was the primary motive for the attack.
On April 28, a 25-year-old woman was attacked with acid. The accused, Nagesh Babu, was arrested from a temple in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, nearly two weeks after the crime. The woman is still undergoing treatment at St John’s Hospital.
