Kerala man held for paying friend to throw acid on wife

A Gulf returnee in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district has been arrested on charges of paying a friend to carry out an acid attack on his wife. The seriously injured woman lost her sight in the right eye, said the police.

According to the police, marital discord prompted Sunil Kumar (45) of Thannithodu in Pathanamthitta to hire his friend Prakash to attack wife Sreeja (30) who has been working as an advocate’s clerk.

Police said Prakash had agreed to carry out the attack for Rs 40,000. Accordingly, Kumar paid his friend the first installment of Rs 20,000. On March 21, Kumar went home with Prakash in the late evening. After knocking at the door and dropping the name of a person familiar to Sreeja, Kumar hid.

When Sreeja opened the door, Prakash poured a can of acid on her face. Both fled the scene and later local people rushed Sreeja to hospital.

Police said the assailants had tried to mislead the probe by uttering the names of some others soon after the attack. Kumar had been active at the hospital where his wife was admitted, but police became suspicious soon after, leading to the arrests on Tuesday.

Kumar, who had been working in the Gulf until four months back, had disputes with his wife. He had held discussions with his friends in this regard and decided to deface the woman. Subsequently, Prakash took up the supari for Rs 40,000.

In Kerala, there have been several incidents in the recent past in which husbands or wives have paid people to kill or assault their life partners.

Source:: Indian Express