Officers in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, say evidence does not support claims of woman, who is recovering in intensive care

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Indian police say they have found no evidence that a woman who claims she has been the victim of at least two acid attacks was targeted again at the weekend.

The woman, who was allegedly raped by two men in 2008 as part of a property dispute, told police she was attacked with acid on Saturday night while staying at a women’s hostel in Uttar Pradesh.

She has claimed the same two men who allegedly raped her nine years ago also burned her with acid in 2013 and in March this year. Police said they had cleared the men in the rape case and the subsequent allegations of acid-throwing.

Since the alleged attack in March, during which the woman said she had been forced to drink acid, she has been receiving 24-hour police protection.

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According to police, the 35-year-old woman said her assailants scaled the walls of her hostel and scalded her with acid on Saturday, leaving her with burns on her face and neck.

The woman is being treated for burns to her neck and shoulders, but police in the Uttar Pradesh capital, Lucknow, said investigations had raised questions over aspects of her account.

“Whatever evidence we have gathered doesn’t support the theory she was attacked by acid by anybody else,” said Vivek Tripathi, a police officer investigating the case.

He said an empty bottle had been found inside the bathroom from where the woman emerged just before the alleged attack. Furthermore, forensic experts had found no sign of acid splashed on to her clothing or the ground, he said.

“It was not on her clothes, it was applied on her face and neck,” Tripathi said. “The markers should not be so uniform.”

He said police would continue to “deeply investigate” the allegations.

The woman’s husband, who was waiting to see her in the intensive care unit where she is recuperating, said he was shaken by the alleged attack and the doubts expressed by police. “Who would do it [burn her] then?” he said. “If someone else did not do it, how did this happen?”



The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, has also reportedly raised doubts over the veracity of the incident, telling a private news channel the women’s hostel was “absolutely safe” and guarded by a police officer.

“Despite all these [precautions], how did this incident take place?” he said, according to the Press Trust of India.



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The woman had been working at the Lucknow branch of Sheroes, a cafe chain staffed by women who have survived acid attacks. A manager at the cafe, Alok Dixit, said it was virtually unheard of that a person would deliberately burn themselves with acid.

Estimates of the number of annual acid attacks vary, but the Acid Survivors’ Foundation of India says about 250 acid attacks were reported in 2015, though activists say the true number is likely to be higher.

The country’s top court banned the sale of acid to the public in 2013 to curb attacks, but it is not clear whether the law has had any effect.

Dixit said the questions over the woman’s latest attack were “a challenge for our team … We are in a situation where we feel we can’t leave her alone,” he said.