Jilted doctor, three others held for acid attack on woman doctor

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Thursday arrested a doctor friend of the Rajouri Garden acid attack victim who had been spurned by the victim and three others persons — two of them are juvenile.

Police said Dr Ashok Yadav and the victim had done their MBBS from Russia and knew each other for around 10 years and the duo were "good friends."

According to the police, Dr Yadav, a resident of Mayapuri, wanted to marry her and had proposed her on two-three occasions but she rejected his overture every time.

Informing of the arrests, Tejinder Luthra - Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police, said, "He recently came to know that her family members are getting her married. Angry over this, he decided to hatch a plot to teach the victim a lesson. Yadav involved his close friend Vaibhav, who earlier used to work with him."

"The accused Dr Ashok Yadav had hired 3 people — 2 juveniles — to execute the plan," he added. 

Luthra also said Vaibhav, who is working in a call centre in Naraina, told Yadav that he knew some persons who can execute his plan.

Police said Vaibhav had roped in two juveniles and fixed a deal of Rs 25,000 with them to carry out the plot and out of which, Vaibhav gave them Rs 22,000 in advance.

To ensure a foolproof plan, Dr Yadav had also conducted a trial to make their plot a success.

"Yadav wanted to make his plan a success due to which a trial of the attack was executed with the help of accused juveniles. Yadav asked the juveniles to pour water on him by filling it in a syringe as part of the trial," Luthra added.

Yadav had made plan to attack the victim on December 17 but it could not be executed on that day she was travelling in a car.

Police said the victim had trusted Dr Yadav a lot, so much so that when police once took him for interrogation, she told police officials that if they interrogated him, she would withdraw this case.

During the investigation, it came out that the accused (juveniles) had chased the victim from her house. Yadav had initially denied his involvement in the crime but later broke down and confessed to his crime, police said.

The family members of the victim were shocked when "the best friend" of the victim was arrested.

"All four accused have been apprehended and the victim's

looted bag was recovered as were the bike accused juveniles had stolen to execute the plan, syringe used to throw acid on the victim's face," police added.

Vaibhav and two juveniles were held from Hari Nagar area.

Vaibhav and two juveniles lived in the same locality of Hari Nagar and knew each other very well.

On Tuesday morning, two unidentified assailants had thrown acid on a 30-year-old woman doctor as they tried to snatch her bag.

When she resisted, the pillion rider threw an acid-like chemical on her and fled with her bag. The victim sustained burns in the incident and was rushed to the same hospital where she worked. From there, she has been referred to AIIMS, police said.

The incident was caught on two CCTV cameras installed in the street, footages of which were scanned by the police to identify the accused. The attackers could not be immediately identified as both of them were wearing helmets. They came on a bike.

The condition of one of the eyes of the victim, who had sustained burn injuries on the right side of her face in the acid attack, has shown slight improvement, doctors at AIIMS said.

The victim, herself a senior resident doctor at Employees State Insurance (ESI) hospital, is undergoing treatment at Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences in AIIMS.

According to the doctors, there has been a slight improvement in the condition of her eye. However, in such cases, it takes time to find out whether her vision has got affected or not.  

(With Agency Inputs)