Three women constables of the Uttar Pradesh police who allegedly took selfies with a 45-year-old acid attack victim while she was undergoing treatment in a hospital on Fridaytoday were suspended while an enquiry has been ordered.
The victim, who allegedly has faced acid attacks and gangrape in the past, had claimed that she had been forced to drink acid by two men in the Allahabad-Lucknow Ganga Gomti Express on Thursday and had been taken to the King George's Medical University for treatment.
However the three constables, deployed there for her protection, took selfies with the victim in her bed which went viral. A red faced police department was forced to suspend the three constables and order a probe.
The plight of the victim also caught the attention of state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who visited her and announced a Rs 1 lakh assistance. He also desired that the guilty be arrested.
The police claimed to have arrested the two accused persons identified as Bhondu Singh and Guddu Singh.
According to police officials, the shocking incident came to light when the woman got off the Allahabad-Lucknow Ganga Gomti Express at Charbagh station in Lucknow and gave a written complaint to the government railway police.
She had written it being unable to speak, they said.
As per the complaint, the alleged victim said that two persons forced her to drink acid around 10.30 am on Thursday.
This was allegedly the fourth attack on the woman.
Allegedly, in 2012, she was was attacked with a knife while in 2013 she was attacked with acid, police sources said.
Two men had allegedly gang-raped and attacked her with acid over a property dispute in her home at Unchahar (Raebareli) in 2009, 100 kilometres from Lucknow, they added.
The woman works with a cafe run by acid attack survivors in Lucknow and had gone home on March 10 as her daughter was taking class 10 examinations, police sources. The victim told the cops that she was returning yesterday when the incident took place.
She was then taken to the King George's Medical University for treatment where three women constables, deployed to protect her, took selfies with the victim in the hospital bed.
The purported photographs, which went viral, show the three constables sitting near the bed of the victim.
A Satish Ganesh, IG (Lucknow Zone), termed the three constables "insensitive" and promised action. The three were suspended and a probe in to the incident ordered.
In a meeting later, Adityanath also told state officials asked for effective steps in cases of acid attacks.
