The three men accused of throwing acid on a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Delhi, leaving her in a critical state in hospital, ordered the chemical on online shopping site Flipkart. It has taken another deadly acid attack to expose how easy it is to buy acid, online or at a shop, despite a Supreme Court ban on its sale.
The Delhi Commission for Women has sent notice to Flipkart and Amazon over “easy availability of acid”.
The Class 12 student was on her way to school in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka on Wednesday when two men on a bike passed by, one of them flinging acid on her. In a CCTV video, the teen is seen recoiling, then running in pain.
The attack was planned by Sachin Arora, 20, who had a fallout with the girl in September. He was helped by Harshit Aggarwal, 19, and Virender Singh, 22.
Sachin and Harshit threw acid on the schoolgirl while Virender took Sachin’s scooter and mobile phone to another location to create an alibi and mislead the police.
All three were arrested within 12 hours, though they tried their best to throw the police off their trail.
They allegedly ordered the acid online. Sachin Arora bought it off Flipkart and paid using his e-wallet, said senior police officer Preet Hooda, citing technical evidence.
The e-commerce portal has not put out any statement till now.
The Supreme Court had in 2013 banned the sale of acid over the counter following a rise in acid attacks. The court had also put in place restrictions for those selling acid – only licensed shopowners can sell acid, they must be registered and they must keep a register of those buying acid from them. Those buying acid also need to give a reason and ID proof.
But NDTV demonstrated how buying acid in the shop is as easy as buying a bag of chips.
Delhi women’s panel chief Swati Maliwal said buying acid is “as easy as buying vegetables”.
“It is unfortunate that despite repetitive recommendations of the commission, the retail sale of acid is not banned. Acid is being sold openly in markets, unchecked. In fact, it is as easy to obtain acid as it is to purchase vegetables! The government must ban retail sale of acid,” Ms Maliwal tweeted.
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