Hours after she scores 80% in Class 12, West Midnapore girl burnt in acid attack
A LOCAL YOUTH RADHARAMAN DINDA ALIAS PAPAI HURLED AN ACID BULB AT HER WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING AND RAN OFF
MIDNAPORE: On Friday morning Rina Maiti (name changed), a resident of Daspur (in West Mindapore district) was elated to find that she scored 80% marks in the higher secondary examination. At that time, she had not apprehended that her delight would be so short lived. Later at night, when she was sleeping with her mother and brother, a local youth Radharaman Dinda alias Papai, entered the room, hurled an acid bulb at her and ran off.
“We have arrested Dinda and his friend for their involvement in this incident. Both were picked up from their residences,” said Bharati Ghosh, police super, West Midnapore.
Only about 12 hours before the incident, Maiti was beside herself with joy when she found she scored 401 out of 500 after the board exam results were out in the morning.
While the police claimed that the door of the room was kept open for some relief from the heat wave offering the opportunity to the criminals to tiptoe inside, the relatives of the victim said, adding that the culprits broke open the door.
On Saturday, the Daspur victim was initially admitted to a local hospital, and from there she was shifted to state-run M R Bangur hospital with burns on her face and legs. Her mother and brother were also injured in the attack.
The attack took place between 2 and 2:20 am on Saturday.
West Bengal has witnessed a number of acid attacks in the past few months, but not one featured a victim who went such a dramatic transformation in fortunes in such a short time.
In July 2014 in Panskura of East Midnapore, a young man threw acid at a Class 12 student when she refused to marry him. With the girl, her mother and sister also received injuries as acid was also poured on them.
On June 18, 2014, a resident of Ranaghat area in Nadia suffered burn injuries on her face when a man hurled acid at her when she was waiting at Chittaranjan railway station. The accused, Ripon Das, also a resident of Ranaghat area threw acid on her face and fled.
In the last week of August 2014 a man attacked her wife with acid inside a hospital ward where dozens of patients were admitted. Though the woman managed to escape unscathed, at least five patients sustained injuries.
In the Daspur incident Dinda used to regularly threat the victim that he will take her away forcibly.
“The youth is the resident of an adjacent village and had offered to marry the girl a few times in the past, but she refused him every time. On Friday night while she was sleeping with her mother and brother, he threw an acid bulb at her and fled,” said a relative of the victim.