Visakhapatnam: Revenge and illicit affairs were the most common reasons for acid attacks in Andhra Pradesh. AP has emerged in the top place in acid attacks in Southern India with 14 acid-attack incidents in 2015 and if recent incidents are anything to go by, AP will be No. 1 in the country in this heinous crime.
A newly-married man Sheikh Mohammed Ilyas, 24, died in an acid attack after a girl threw acid at him in Venigandla, Guntur district, in May 2017. Ilyas allegedly had an affair with Hema Bindu but he married another girl.
In a similar incident, a married woman Y. Swapna attacked another woman Ch. Rajani with acid for planning to marry her ex-boyfriend B. Satyanarayana Reddy at Abidnagar in Vizag. Fortunately, Rajani escaped with minor burns.
K.V. Ramana and his wife K. Rani were injured after his younger brother K. Poliraju threw acid on them over a property dispute at Naidu Street of Salur town in Vizianagaram district. They said the attack was the result of a dispute over a small plot of land.
DCP, Law and Order, North Zone, Fakirappa K. said with the recent acid attack on Dr Balaji Bhushan Patnaik, a pediatrician at a reputed corporate hospital in Vizag city, the menace in the state had come sharply into focus.
“In most cases, women were the victims in the acid attack incidents but now we are investigating the acid attack on Dr Patnaik from various angles to ascertain the reasons and also to identify the perpetrators,” he added.
Andhra Pradesh occupied the first spot in South India in 2015 in the number of acid attack cases as per the National Crime Records Bureau. Andhra Pradesh recorded 14 cases of acid attacks in 2015, an abnormal increase from five recorded in 2014.
In 2016 also, acid attack cases were reported in coastal Andhra Pradesh as well as Rayalaseema.
“Most of the acid attacks in the state were committed out of extreme animosity, factional enmity or extreme cases of sexual or professional jealousy,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
