The Hindu : Bride to-be, four others suffer serious burns in acid attack

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 26, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Bride to-be, four others suffer serious burns in acid attack

By N.Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI MAY 25. A bride to-be and four others, including three of her relatives, suffered serious burns today after a youth threw acid at them, while they were returning home after a betrothal ceremony at Anna Nagar.

The victims, including the driver of the autorickshaw in which they were travelling, were scarred badly when a youth known to the family, followed them in another auto, allegedly attacked them on New Avadi Road near the Anna Nagar Peripheral Hospital and made his getaway in the same vehicle.

Happening in broad daylight, at around 1 p.m., the incident once again brings into focus the autorickshaw as the preferred mode of operation for anti-social elements. In yet another gruesome incident today, the autorickshaw turned the villain of the piece, aiding and abetting the act of a violent youth. It also brings into focus the need for increased and effective regulation to discipline the three-wheeled public carrier.

With most of the policing appearing to be restricted to the main arterial roads on holidays, such incidents are bound to infuse terror among the city residents. It is not uncommon to see the three-wheelers overspeeding on the roads on Sundays and other government holidays, when the traffic is comparatively less, a practice that poses serious threat to other law-abiding motorists.

The five injured in today incident--Nirmala, who had been betrothed merely a few hours earlier at a private hall in Anna Nagar, her sister, Chitra, her grandparents, Dheenadayalan and Ekambariammal and Thangaraj, driver of the autorickshaw--were admitted to the intensive care burns ward of the Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital. Their autorickshaw was bound for Conoor High Road, where the family resides.

According to sources in the hospital, Nirmala suffered serious burn (26 per cent) injuries, while the degree of burns sustained by others range between 3-15 per cent. Though out of danger, the healing process of those suffering such burns was long running into a few months and required intensive care, doctors attending on them said.

Tracing the incident, Nirmala's father Sundaresan, who was travelling in another autorickshaw behind the victims', said the youth, who allegedly threw the acid, was their neighbour and made toys for a living. The accused, whom apparently the bride-to-be identified, had been "harassing" Nirmala to marry him for a long time, Sundaresan said. The ICF police are on the look out for the accused.

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