Goregaon seems to have a lunatic on the loose. On March 7, a 25-year-old woman was punched in the face by an unidentified man who, locals say, is 'crazy'. So hard was the impact of the punch that the woman lost 40% vision in her right eye.

On Thursday at around 7.45pm on SV Road near Film City, Sushila Palsamkar was walking home from the station when a man appeared before her all of a sudden. After saying something incomprehensible to her in Hindi, he punched her hard on the nose. Her nose started bleeding after which she collapsed.

"I was shocked. I don't have any enemies. After I collapsed, a lot of people gathered and took me to a private hospital. They told me that there was a crazy guy on the loose who had done this with other women before," Palsamkar said.

The victim is a chartered accountant and a resident of Hanuman Nagar in Goregaon (W).

Doctors informed her that her retina was damaged and that she has lost 40% vision in her right eye. Head of the ophthalmology department at KEM Hospital, Dr Arjun Ahuja said, "The impact of the blow was so hard that it has cracked her cornea and affected her vision. The vision in her right eye is blurred. Only after she undergoes a few tests can we ascertain whether normal vision can be restored."

Palsamkar does not know what her attacker looked like. "I couldn't see his face because it was so dark. But I will be able to recognise him through his voice," she said.

When she went to the Goregaon police with her medical records to report the incident, the police refused to file a non-cognizable offence citing weak case and insufficient medical proof. Only after she got a medical certificate from KEM Hospital did they register an FIR on Tuesday.

"Locals told her that he was a crazy man who had done this to many women before. But this is the such first case of this kind registered here. We will be looking for the man; he seems like a lunatic," a senior police officer said, adding that a certificate from government doctor is essential to take such cases forward.

@radhika1705

@somitapal