No end to acid attacks: AP woman kills ex-boyfriend by pouring acid into his throat

Most victims are women but a large number of men have also been at the receiving end.

news Crime

A 24-year-old Andhra man died after his ex-girlfriend poured acid into his throat in Venigandla village.

The woman, Hima Bindu allegedly poured acid into Sheikh Mohammad Illyas’s mouth on Tuesday night, as he got married to another woman.

According to DSP Ramanjaneyulu, Hima Bindhu and Illyas had been in a relationship. “On Sunday, Illyas got married to another woman. Angered by this, Hima Bindu resorted to pouring acid down his throat,” he added.

On Sunday night, Hima Bindu had allegedly called Illyas and asked him to meet her at one of their mutual friends, Mullah Arjun’s house.

“Hima Bindu wanted to make sure that Illyas deleted all the photos and conversations they had had from his phone. She had said that she would walk away and not contact him again if he met her one last time. A relative of ours, Kasim, went along with Illyas to meet her,” said Illyas’s brother, Halla Bakshu.

An argument ensued between the two when they met, and Hima Bindu allegedly pulled out a bottle of acid from her bag and poured it down Illyas’s throat, Bakshu added.

“The acid also fell on Illays’s chest. Hima Bindu also suffered acid burns on her arms and legs. The bed and a part of the wall in the room were also destroyed in the process,” DSP Ramanjaneyulu said.

“Soon after the incident, Hima Bindu ran away from the spot. Kasim immediately took Illyas to the Guntur Government Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Hima Bindu contacted her father Yakub, who took her to a hospital in Kannavaritota. When the doctors told them to file a police complaint, they ran away and have been absconding ever since,” the DSP added.

The police are trying to track down Mullah Arjun, who is also absconding, and Hima Bindu and a case of murder (section 302 IPC) and acid attack (section 326 A) have been filed.

While most acid attack victims are women, a large number of men too have been at the receiving end.

Anita D’Souza from the Acid Survivors Foundation India (ASFI) an NGO based out of Kolkata, West Bengal had said to The News Minute, “Around 85 per cent of the acid attack survivors we come across are women. The rest 15 per cent are men survivors”

Dan Perrins authored a report titled Acid Attacks: Telling only half the story, in 2014, in which he says, “Most of the news fed to us about this particularly heinous form of violence covers about 60% of the story today; about 40% of the victims are men.”

Though men too are victims of acid attacks in India, the number of women who face such violence are way more in number.