19-year-old woman in Delhi threw acid on boyfriend, herself to prevent breakup

Five days after a 19-year-old woman and her friend were allegedly attacked with an acid-like substance while riding a bike in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri, the police on Sunday arrested the woman and claimed that she had poured acid on his face to “ensure he does not get out of their three-year relationship”.

Police said they initially had thought that the couple was attacked by someone else known to either of the two. Since the woman had also suffered burns, her 24-year-old alleged boyfriend did not suspect her role. The man thought that it could have been done by some friends of his girlfriend, said an investigator on the condition of anonymity.

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During the investigation, the officer said, the police scanned the CCTV footage on the route that the couple took on Tuesday afternoon. However, the video footage did not help much as the crime was not captured in any of the cameras. The 24-year-old man, who had suffered 15% burns on the right side of his face, neck and chest was discharged after treatment and was declared fit for recording his statement.

The officer said even through the woman was also a victim of the attack, the discrepancies in her statements made them suspicious. The injured man was asked to narrate the sequence of events that unfolded on the day of the attack.

“The role of his girlfriend came under lens when he told us that during the ride she insisted on removing his helmet by saying that it was disturbing her and making her uncomfortable. Moments after he removed the helmet, he felt face burning and realised that someone had thrown acid on them,” said the officer.

Police said the woman was questioned but she claimed she had no role in it. In the meantime, the police identified the shop from where she had purchased the acid (a locally made bathroom cleaning chemical). “When confronted with the evidence, she confessed,” said the officer.

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During the interrogation, another police officer said, the woman disclosed that she was in a relationship with the man for the last three years. For the past couple of months, she was disturbed because her boyfriend wanted to get out of the relationship whereas she had planned to marry him. She suspected that he was getting close to another woman, the second officer said.

“The woman planned to disfigure his face with a chemical attack. On Tuesday, she had kept the acid bottle in her bag. As he removed the helmet, she hurled the acid on the right side of his face. She also injured herself to pass it off as an acid attack,” the officer said.