Acid attack: court pulls up cops for shoddy probe, frees man

Delhi Police has been pulled up for its "very shoddy" investigation in an acid attack and stalking case by a court here which acquitted a man of the offences.
The court said there were several infirmities in the police probe and even the woman, who was the victim of acid attack, and her husband have not supported prosecution case.
"The entire investigation conducted in the present case is very shoddy and no wholehearted effort seems to have been made to investigate the case properly although the case is of a serious nature...
"In this background, the accused is acquitted of the charges under sections 326(A) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) and 354(D) (stalking) of IPC," Additional Sessions Judge Rajiv Mehra said.

The court acquitted Sultan, a resident of Turkman Gate in Central Delhi, of the charge that he had thrown acid on a woman due to which she received burn injuries and was also stalking her.
"Taking into account all these infirmities appearing in the investigation and also the fact that the complainant herself has not been supporting nor her husband helping the prosecution and there is no other material witness of the incident...," the court said.

According to the prosecution, on the evening of February 7 last year, Sultan had thrown acid on the woman in Central Delhi due to which she sustained burn injuries.

The woman had also told the police that the man was stalking her and forcing her to talk to him. The woman and her husband had identified Sultan before the police as the one who had thrown acid on her.
The woman, however, turned hostile in the court and denied that the man was the same person who had thrown acid on her.
The court cited several instances to show the gap in the investigation, including that the police did not collect the call details record either of the complainant or her husband as the woman had said that the accused used to call her from different numbers.