Acid attack on girl: NHRC notice to Delhi govt, police chief

The NHRC has issued notices to the Delhi government, the city's police commissioner and the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authorities over an acid attack on a 17-year-old girl in the national capital, officials said on Friday. Two bike-borne, masked men flung acid on the girl on Wednesday, minutes after she had left her west Delhi residence for school, leaving her with serious injuries. Police have arrested three men, including a neighbour of the victim, in connection with the incident.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo motu cognisance of the incident. The girl was admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital's ICU (intensive care unit), the NHRC said in a statement.

The commission has observed that the reported incident raises serious issues of human rights violations of the victim.


"It is really very disturbing that despite several amendments in the criminal laws and various measures taken by the authorities to ban the sale of acid or corrosive substances, other than for commercial or scientific purposes, it appears nothing much has changed on the ground, as the attackers are easily procuring acids - be it through off-line or on-line," the rights panel said.

This clearly demonstrates that there is a "lack of a monitoring system" within the administration for the sale of acid or acids of various natures, it said.

"Therefore, prima facie, it appears that there is culpable negligence" on the part of the public servant for failing to regulate the sale of acid(s) within whose territorial jurisdiction the incident took place," the statement said.

Accordingly, it has issued notices to the chief secretary of the Delhi government, commissioner of police, and the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authorities, and sought detailed specific reports within four weeks, it added.