2 chargesheets filed in acid attack case

Srinagar, February 22

The police on Tuesday filed two separate chargesheets against three accused, including a juvenile, in the recent acid attack on a woman in the downtown city, officials said.

While a 1,000-page charge sheet against Sajad Ahmad and Mohd Saleem was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, the other was submitted before the Juvenile Justice Board with the police making a plea for treating the juvenile as an adult because of the heinous nature of the crime.

The chargesheets were filed within three weeks of the incident to ensure swift and exemplary punishment to the accused.

On February 1, a man accompanied by a juvenile allegedly threw acid on a 24-year-old woman after she rejected his marriage proposal, an incident that shook entire Srinagar and drew widespread condemnation. After initial treatment in Srinagar, the victim was sent to a Chennai eye hospital for specialised treatment.

Earlier, Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar had had appealed to girls and their parents to inform the police at an early stage if any miscreant stalks or harasses them so that action can be taken.

Initially, the main accused gave wishy-washy answers to police on the procurement of sulfuric acid. After he finally named the shop from where he got the acid, it was sealed for violating the Supreme Court guidelines on the storage and sale of acids. —