27 suffer acid burns during marriage function
By IANSMonday, June 7, 2010
LUCKNOW - At least 27 people at a wedding ceremony in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district were hospitalised after they suffered acid burn injuries during a marriage ritual Monday morning, police said.
The incident took place in Alinagar locality in the district, some 400 km from Lucknow.
All the 27 people who were injured were from the bride’s side, police said.
Police have arrested a 40-year-old man Kailash Kumar, who is from the groom’s side, in connection with the incident.
Though Kumar told the police he mistook acid kept in a bottle for water and sprinkled it on the people while performing the ‘tika’ ceremony, police have not ruled out the possibility of foul play in the incident.
“Though Kumar says it happened by mistake, it needs to be probed as there could be some other reasons behind the incident,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Kalyan Singh told reporters.
“We can confirm what happened only after completion of the enquiry. However, in our preliminary investigations it has emerged that before the incident took place Kumar had a tiff with some women and girls for passing lewd remarks against them,” he added.
Of the 27 hospitalised, most are women and girls, police said.
