Man attacked with acid; dad-in-law pours it on pregnant woman

A man had his skin burnt off in an acid attack at Salt Lake's Nayapatti market on Sunday morning after an altercation with a woman. The woman allegedly threw acid on the man's face and body as a result of which he had to be sent to a hospital. After starting investigation, police learnt that it was fallout of an old enmity between the victim and the assailant. Four civic volunteers, who were standing close to the spot also received burn injuries.

In another incident, an acid attack took place at Murshidabad's Raghunathganj on Sunday where a pregnant woman was the victim. Police revealed that victim's father-in-law threw acid on her to take revenge after failing to get dowry.

The 24-year-old victim was taken to the hospital by her husband and neighbours where she was admitted in a critical condition.

In the Salt Lake incident, the Bidhannagar City Police said that the altercation took place between Manika Naskar, who is a jewellery shop owner and Santipada Mondal, a resident of New Town at Nayapatti market over an issue of previous enmity.

"In the course of the altercation; Manika suddenly threw acid at Santipada, who received acid-injuries," informed a police source in the Detective Department, Bidhannagar. "The accused Manika Naskar, a Kestopur resident was arrested. She will be produced before the court on Monday," the source added.

In the incident at Murshidabad's Raghunathgunge, the investigators came to know that the accused father-in-law demanded a huge amount of money from that woman. He threatened to kill the pregnant woman if she was unable to gather money from her parents as dowry.

"The woman was reluctant to give away the money and did not care about the threats. This infuriated him and he poured acid on the woman and escaped from the house," said a police officer.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department conducted a raid at an illegal acid production unit at Burdwan's Katwa on Sunday. The sleuths seized 205 litre of acid which was being produced illegally without the knowledge of district administration and police.

Biswajit Dutta, the owner of the factory and prime accused in this case was arrested.

CID learnt that Dutta, resident of Katwa's Panuhati-Barujibi Colony started illegal acid production at his residence. He prepared Sulfuric and Nitric acid and them in his house. "This was probably the biggest illegal acid production unit in Bengal. The local residents and even the administration had no knowledge about this factory," said a CID source.

After interrogating Dutta, CID investigators found that the man supplied bottles full of acid not only across the state in different districts, but also to his clients who were spread in Bangladesh. Many other people could involve in this racket, the investigators suspect.

It may be mentioned that the police conducted raids in retail and wholesale markets to catch the consignments of illegal acid especially after the growing incidents of such acid attacks in the state.