BAREILLY: A

man

who wanted to get even with his estranged

wife

for moving court against him, allegedly poured acid over his

father-in-law, mistaking him to be his wife. A case has been registered against him but he is on the run.

The gruesome incident took place in the early hours of Saturday in Nano Bagvala locality under Jarifnagar police station’s jurisdiction in Budaun district when Wazahat Ali sneaked into his father-in-law’s house allegedly intent on pouring acid on his wife. However, it was dark and he mistook his 70-year-old

Mushtaq Ali, who was sleeping on a cot, as his wife and poured acid over him. The accused managed to escape from the scene.

Hearing Ali’s screams, his family members rushed in and found him wriggling in agony. The victim was taken to hospital, where he succumbed to burns on Saturday morning. After the incident, the accused managed to flee the scene.

According to police, Wazahat had a running feud with his wife

for

the past two decades, resulting in the matter reaching the family court. The woman had moved back to live with her parents since then.

The family court decided the matter in the woman’s favour, fixing an alimony. But Wazahat did not adhere with the court’s order and a recovery order of Rs 42,000 was issued by it. Unable to stand this, he decided to take law in his hands, police added.

“During investigation, we learnt that he wanted to kill his wife by pouring acid upon her but by mistake, he attacked his father in-law,” said SSP, Budaun, Ashok Tripathi. He said two teams had been pressed into service to nab the accused, who is absconding.

Station house officer Pankaj Lavanya said an FIR under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) had been lodged against him.