The father of a Delhi University student, who claimed she was attacked with acid, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Monday, The Indian Express reported.
The man confessed that his 20-year-old daughter had “faked the incident” by pouring toilet cleaner on her hands, The Hindu quoted the police as saying.
He was arrested on allegations of sexual assault, levelled by the wife of one of the men that he and his daughter had allegedly tried to implicate in the alleged attack case.
The incident, initially reported as an acid attack, occurred outside Laxmibai College in northwestern Delhi on Sunday. The student, enrolled in the university’s School of Open Learning, had claimed that three men on a motorcycle approached her, threw acid and fled.
She had identified one of the men as a resident of her neighbourhood in Mukundpur, and claimed that he was accompanied by his friends Ishan and Arman.
However, the police found inconsistencies in the student’s statement. The main person accused in the matter and his motorcycle were elsewhere at the time, according to Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravinder Yadav.
This was confirmed by call detail records, security camera footage and witness statements, Yadav said.
Further investigation led the police to uncover that the father of the student had allegedly been accused of sexual assault and blackmail by the wife of the main accused.
The wife’s complaint, filed at the Bhalswa Dairy Police Station, alleged that the student’s father had sexually assaulted her while she worked at his socks manufacturing factory between 2021 and 2024, The Hindu reported.
The woman also accused the man of blackmailing her with objectionable photos and videos.
Meanwhile, the other two men named in the complaint, Ishan and Arman, were found to be outside Delhi during the alleged attack and have since been traced to Agra, The Indian Express quoted the police as saying. They are reportedly relatives of the student.
Yadav said the mother of the two men told the police that she had been attacked with acid in 2018, allegedly by the student’s relatives. A property dispute between the families is still in court.
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