HYDERABAD: A man who adopted a Muslim girl after she lost her parents in the twin blasts that rocked the city in 2007 has claimed that he was repeatedly stabbed by another person earlier this month. The incident came to light on Friday. Mr Papalal Ravikanth, a resident of Shahinyathgunj, is recovering at the Osmania General Hospital.

“On June 1, while I was in my house, one Bal Kishan and others stabbed me on my legs, stomach and chest. “The doctors put 60 sutures on my body and saved me. I feared I would die. There are several persons who do not want me to live and are trying to kill me,” he said. He claimed that a few persons owing allegiance to some right wing organisations were behind the attack. Asked why he had to stay in the hospital for nearly a month, Mr Ravikanth said he had undergone three skin transplants as he had suffered deep wounds.

Mr Ravikanth, who makes idols of deities at Narsing Mandir in Sultan Bazaar, told this newspaper that people of the were harassing him for keeping a Muslim girl at his home. “We allow her to follow her religion. She brought happiness to our house and leads the other children in studies,” he said. The police has denied this version. When contacted, Shahinyathgunj inspector M. Ravindar Reddy said Mr Ravikanth was stabbed by Bal Kishan, who was involved in a murder case in the police station area a few months ago.

“We registered a case under IPC Section 307 and remanded him. He is in jail and proposals to detain him under PD Act are being prepared,” he said. The inspector denied the attack on Mr Ravikanth was anyway related to his bringing up a Muslim girl. “There is no truth in his claims. There are a few cases registered against him in the Shahinyathgunj police station for indulging in petty quarrels with the locals,” the inspector said.

The police also found a love angle to the attack. Mr Ravindar Reddy said Bal Kishan, 23, used to frequently visit the colony to try and strike friendship with a girl. “Papalal had warned Bal Kishan, not to stand near his house several times in the past. Following this, Bal Kishan brutally attacked the man with a knife,” he said.

Dr Md Rafi, resident medical officer, Osmania General Hospital said Mr Ravikanth was referred to the hospital by the Shahinyatgunj police on June 1. “He was admitted in the surgical ward and administered stitches by the duty doctors,” he said. Speaking about the girl he had adopted, Mr Ravikanth said he had found her holding a bag of fruits and weeping near the Gokul Chat Bhandar at Koti after the blasts.

“People were running all around. In the middle of the chaos I found the seven-year-old girl crying and took her to the Sultan Bazaar police station. With little response, I took her to the Shahinyathgunj police station where the police asked me to take care of her until someone comes,” he said. When no one came to claim her, he adopted her. “We changed her name to Anjali but as some Muslim scholars said the child cannot be renamed, we continued her Muslim name Sania Fatima. She is now 17 and is studying in Class 9,” Mr Ravikanth said.