Karnataka   

Acid attack victim dies

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Sorrow: Adib Khaleda Aliz Jabeen (left), mother of Hina Fathima, grieving with her relatives at Victoria Hospital in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Bangalore/Mysore: “What can I say now,” lamented Adib Khaleda Aliz Jabeen, mother of acid attack victim Hina Fathima, who died in the burns ward of Victoria Hospital early on Tuesday. She was inconsolable as she waited for her daughter’s body to be handed over.

Twenty-six-year-old Hina Fathima from Mysore was the victim of horrifying violence at the hands of her husband, Firoz Ahmed Khan, on August 8, which involved being force-fed acid and burnt with cigarettes. She was shifted to Victoria Hospital for specialised treatment on August 18.

Doctors at Victoria Hospital said she had 35 per cent “full thickness burns” and died of complications arising out of infection. Septicaemia had set in by the time she was admitted to the hospital, said M. Shankarappa, Head of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. “The chances of survival of a person with even 20 per cent full thickness burns are bleak,” said Dr. Shankarappa.

The body of Ms. Fathima was handed over to the family and the funeral was held at the burial ground on Pulakeshi Road in Mysore in the evening.

Before leaving for Mysore, Ms. Jabeen recounted the suffering her daughter endured, as her husband Muneer Khan, who has dementia, quietly looked on. “She kept saying this should not happen to anyone else. He wanted her husband to get the kind of punishment that would be a lesson to others,” she said. The last wish of Ms. Fathima to see her three children remained unfilled as they were in Mysore.

“Her husband had been tormenting here during the nine years of their marriage asking for money. He was a criminal. For many years we even provided them with provisions,” said Ms. Jabeen.

Ms. Fathima had returned to her parents’ house a year ago, but was taken back 20 days before her death by her father-in-law, who had assured her that she would be safe. “I was not there when she was taken back. I had told her I would look after her as long as I am alive,” said Ms. Jabeen, as her relatives tried to console her. “A mother’s heart knows when a daughter is in danger.”

Dhananjay, Inspector of Udayagiri police station, said that Ms. Fathima’s husband, who is already in judicial custody on the charge of attempted murder, will now be booked for murder under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code.

The police said the Executive Magistrate had recorded the victim’s statement on August 8 after she was admitted to K.R. Hospital. It will now be treated as her dying declaration.

Mahalakshmi, another acid victim from Mysore, blamed the police for Ms. Fathima’s death. “Had the police dealt with the case more sensibly, Hina’s life could have been saved,” she said.

“I don’t have any faith in the police system after the treatment I faced seven years ago. They [police] will always arrive when it is too late, like in the movies.”

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