Minor force fed acid on mere suspicion of jewellery theft

A 12-year-old girl from Bihar was forced to consume acid with some food on the mere suspicion that she had stolen jewellery from the house of her uncle’s neighbour at Titagarh in North 24-Parganas late Thursday night.

The girl was first admitted to BN Basu Hospital at Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas. She was later shifted to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata as her condition further deteriorated.

Police said that the girl is originally from Bihar and she had come to visit her uncle’s place around 10 days ago. She got friendly with everyone in the neighbourhood and everyone used to speak to her.

On Thursday night, her uncle’s neighbour Umesh Yadav took her to his house saying that she would have her dinner in his house. But Yadav and other members of his family started questioning her about some jewellery which was stolen from their house.

It may be mentioned that few days ago, jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh was stolen from their house and they started suspecting the girl’s involvement behind it.

The Class VI student continued saying that she didn’t know anything about the jewellery but Yadav and his family members slapped her to make her accept that she had stolen the jewellery.

Finally, they forced her to eat some food with “raw acid” in it. She was not ready to have the food with heavy pungent smell of acid but they forcefully made her eat it.

She felt her tongue burning as soon as she chewed the food and started crying for help. Hearing her plea, local people rushed inside Yadav’s house and found a portion of the girl’s face and her mouth turning black which it clearly suggested that her skin was heavily burnt.

Failing to bear the pain, the girl continued crying and local people took her to hospital.

Finding some of the local people contacting the police over phone, Yadav and his family members managed to flee. Police reached the spot and found people protesting against the incident. A section of youth attempted to ransack the house of the accused. The police managed the crowd and assured that the culprits will be arrested soon. The police have also taken the statement of the victim. But she couldn’t speak properly and the police spoke to doctors to know the extent of the injury.

It may be mentioned that there had been a two incident of lynching in South 24-Parganas. In Diamond Harbour, an ITI student was beaten to death on mere suspicion of stealing a buffalo while at Canning in South 24-Parganas a Class XII pass-out faced the same fate on mere suspicion of stealing mangoes from a neighbour’s garden.