On Wednesday the police said that a group of men allegedly sprayed an acid-like inflammable substance on a girl at a Durga Puja Pandal in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur.
The incident took place in the Kotwali area of Jabalpur late Tuesday night. According to the police, 10 people have been arrested so far in the case. The victim, who is being treated in a local hospital, has suffered severe burns on her face.
Prabhat Shukla, City Superintendent of Police (DSP) briefing about the incident said that an inflammable substance was sprayed on a woman who went to the Durga Pooja pandal in the Kotwali area close to Sunarhai. As soon as the woman felt the sensation caused due to the spray, she cried for help. The people present on the spot caught hold of three of the accused and handed them over to the police.
After interrogation of the three arrested, 7 more accused were arrested as well.
“A case was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 354 (assault on woman) and 324 (causing hurt) based on the woman’s complaint. We will add relevant sections of IPC against the accused after the laboratory tests determine if the substance used was acid,” DSP Shukla further informed.
According to a report by Amar Ujala, all the 10 accused in this incident belong to ‘samuday vishesh’. As soon as the Hindu organisations received the information about the incident, they reached the police station and staged a protest.
Goa State Counsel in Supreme Court, Prashant Patel shared a picture of the perpetrators and tweeted, “Terrorists who hurled acid on women in Sunarhai Navami Durga Utsav in Jabalpur.”
Notably, several cases of Muslim youths forcibly entering Garba venues and causing ruckus have come to the fore not only in Madhya Pradesh but in other states as well.
On October 4, the administration of Madhya Pradesh’s district of Mandasur demolished the illegally constructed houses of three of the 19 accused in the case where stones were thrown at a Garba venue after a dispute between the two parties. As per reports, on the night of October 2, a stone pelting incident took place at Surjani Village which comes under the Sitamau police station area in Mandasur district. Four people were reportedly injured in the incident.