LUCKNOW: A law clerk (munshi) and his friend were arrested in Pilibhit after being shot at in police encounters on Thursday and Friday respectively for throwing acid on a woman law intern on Tuesday. They had attacked the woman with acid when she was returning home from court along with a lawyer under whom she was doing internship, said senior police officials on Friday.
The SP said the key accused had a criminal background with around three criminal cases related to fraud, extortion and physical assault lodged against him at Kotwali and Sungarhi police stations between 2021 and 2023. (Pic for representation)
Both the intern and the lawyer suffered burn injuries in the acid attack. The woman is LLB third year student and doing internship in a Pilibhit court where the key accused also worked as law clerk with another lawyer. The intern and the lawyer are undergoing treatment at Pilibhit district hospital, and their condition is stated to be stable. The Pilibhit lawyers had boycotted the work on Wednesday in protest of the incident and had taken out a procession on the collectorate premises.
Pilibhit superintendent of police (SP) Avinash Pandey said the key accused Atul Kumar, a law clerk with a senior lawyer in Pilibhit court and fourth semester student of the law course, was arrested on Thursday in an encounter during which he suffered bullet injury in his right leg in retaliatory firing by police. He said the co-accused, Satish Kumar, who assisted the key accused in the crime, was later arrested in a similar encounter on Friday early morning during which he also suffered bullet injury in his left leg.
The SP said the key accused had a criminal background with around three criminal cases related to fraud, extortion and physical assault lodged against him at Kotwali and Sungarhi police stations between 2021 and 2023.
He said the key accused was wearing a burqa while sitting on the rear seat of the motorcycle while the co-accused was wearing a helmet at the time of the acid attack on the deserted stretch near Pooranpur jungle when the victim was returning home from the court along with the lawyer on a motorcycle at around 5.15 pm on Thursday.
Pandey said the key accused revealed that the intern earlier had proximity with him and used to have conversation on phone regularly. He said the accused misunderstood this proximity as her liking for him and proposed to her a month ago. He said the accused had even borrowed ₹8,000 from the woman and the latter used to ask for it in front of other lawyers after rejecting his proposal.
The SP said the key accused was feeling dejected as the woman had stopped talking to him after rejecting his proposal following which he wanted to teach her a lesson. He said he arranged three bottles of acid from a Bareilly resident Wahid, whom he had befriended while pursuing the case of his cousin Kalimuddin booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2016. He said the accused purchased burqa and a plastic mug from Sungarhi market and borrowed the motorcycle from his friend Chhatrapal on the day of the incident to execute the crime.
“He along with the co-accused was doing recee of the victim since morning when she was going to the court along with the lawyer Om Prakash. He wore the burqa and sat on the rear seat of the motorcycle while the co-accused was driving. The duo was waiting for the victim near the petrol pump and threw acid on her after finding a deserted stretch while overtaking the lawyer’s motorcycle,” he said, adding , “Thereafter the duo sped towards the jungle area.”
The SP said the presence of the two accused on the spot had been established with the help of video footage of CCTV cameras installed at the petrol pump and their mobile locations retrieved through electronic surveillance. He said the duo had been sent to jail and further investigation about the role of Wahid was going on. He said Wahid would also be booked in the FIR lodged for the acid attack under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita section 124 (1) at Gajraula police station if found involved in the crime.
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