KATHMANDU, JULY 24

Police have arrested two persons, including an Indian national, in connection with acid attack on a 22-year-old woman from Okhaldhunga.

Those taken into custody by a joint team of Teku-based Metropolitan Police Range and Metropolitan Police Crime Division from Dallu area are Mohammad Alam, 47, of Rautahat and Faiyaz Alam, 23, of Bihar, India. MPCD In-charge Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Thapa said the woman sustained minor burns on face and neck after Faiyaz threw acid on her last night while she was returning to her rented room in Bafal.

Mohammad, who used to sell garments in Dallu and is already married, told Faiyaz, who works in his garments shop, to throw acid on the victim to teach her a lesson for ‘rejecting his marriage proposal’.

Mohammad invited the woman to a cafe in Dallu for having tea last evening. After having tea, he offered to drop her to her rented room on his motorcycle. “Faiyaz was waiting near her room with a bottle of acid. While she was walking towards her room after getting off the bike, Faiyaz threw acid on her and fled away. Mohammad picked Faiyaz and dropped him to his rented room in Bafal itself,” an investigating officer told THT.

Locals alerted the police about the attack. The victim was rushed to Swoyambhu-based Manmohan Memorial Hospital, from where she was taken to Kirtipur Hospital for further treatment on a doctor’s advice.

A joint team of MPC and MPCD launched an investigation into the incident based on CCTV footage and the victim’s call detail records, leading to the arrest of the two suspects at around 11:00pm. Officials said the suspects were preparing to flee to India before their arrest.

Mohammad had called the victim several times on her mobile phone before and after the acid attack. Mohammad had kept the acid in his shop for cleaning purposes.

SSP Shyam Lal Gyawali, MPC in-charge, said Mohammad had proposed the victim to marry him. However, she rejected the proposal. Gyawali said he decided to teach her a lesson when he found out that she was having an affair with another man.

Mohammad told police that he used Faiyaz to execute the attack as the victim had never seen or met him. Faiyaz claimed that he could not defy ‘his boss’s order’.

Citing doctors attending the victim, police said she was out of danger and her condition was being monitored.

The victim had first met Mohammad some three years ago through her elder sister, who works for him. Police said the victim had also worked in Mohammed’s garments shop for a month or so a few years ago.

Police made public the duo at a press meet in Kathmandu today. According to police, they will be charged under the Criminal Code Act. Section 193 of the act prohibits acid attack.

Perpetrators of an acid attack can be sentenced to five to eight years and fined between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 25, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.