Army will decide on job to Delhi acid attack victim

A nursing graduate from Delhi who was a victim of an acid attack will have to approach army authorities who will decide the status of her employment with them, a defence official said here Friday.

Preeti Rathi, 25, is scheduled to join the Army Medical College in Mumbai. She lost her right eye after an unidentified youth threw acid on her after she arrived here from New Delhi Thursday to join her new job in the defence establishment at Colaba, south Mumbai.

Requesting anonymity, the official said that after being discharged from hospital, she will have to approach the concerned authorities who will take a final call on her suitability for the appointment as a medical lieutenant.

Preeti is currently on a ventilator in the intensive care unit of the Masina Hospital, Byculla, where her condition is described as serious.

Masina Hospital director R.B. Dastur said that Preeti suffered internal burns due to inhalation and consumption of acid. She has completely lost vision in the right eye but her left eye is not affected.

Mumbai police have released sketches of the unidentified attacker based on CCTV footage from Bandra Terminus. Efforts are on to nab him.

Police questioned Preeti, her father Amar Singh Rathi, his brother Vinod Kumar Singh and his wife Sunita.

The family said that the attacker may have boarded the train at Navsari, Gujarat, where they first spotted him.

At Bandra Terminus, he lunged at Preeti and threw at her the acid from a plastic bottle. Amar Singh was also injured in the attack.

The attacker, whose face was covered with cloth, disappeared into the crowd.

The Government Railway Police, Bandra, have registered a case of attempted murder.