Indian police doubts woman’s account of acid attack
INDIA - Indian police say they have found no evidence that a woman who claims she has been the victim of at least two acid attacks was targeted again at the weekend.
The woman, who was allegedly raped by two men in 2008 as part of a property dispute, told police she was attacked with acid on Saturday night while staying at a women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh. She has claimed the same two men who allegedly raped her nine years ago also burned her with acid in 2013 and in March this year. Police said they had cleared the men in the rape case and the subsequent allegations of acidthrowing. Since the alleged attack in March, during which the woman said she had been forced to drink acid, she has been receiving 24-hour police protection. According to police, the 35-year-old woman said her assailants scaled the walls of her hostel and scalded her with acid on Saturday, leaving her with burns on her face and neck. The woman is being treated for burns to her neck and shoulders, but police in the Uttar Pradesh capital, Lucknow, said investigations had raised questions over aspects of her account. “Whatever evidence we have gathered doesn’t support the theory she was attacked by acid by anybody else,” said Vivek Tripathi, a police officer investigating the case. He said an empty bottle had been found inside the bathroom from where the woman emerged just before the alleged attack.
Furthermore, forensic experts had found no sign of acid splashed on to her clothing or the ground, he said. “It was not on her clothes, it was applied on her face and neck,” Tripathi said. “The markers should not be so uniform.” He said police would continue to “deeply investigate” the allegations. The woman’s husband, who was waiting to see her in the intensive care unit where she is recuperating, said he was shaken by the alleged attack and the doubts expressed by police. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, has also reportedly raised doubts over the veracity of the incident, telling a private news channel the women’s hostel was “absolutely safe” and guarded by a police officer.
(Theguardian.com)