Madurai: In a first such incident in Madurai district, two girl students were attacked with acid by an unidentified man near their college at Tirumangalam in suburban Madurai on Friday. Meena (19) a first year B.A. student of English Literature at Madurai Kamaraj University Constituent Model Arts and Science College, Tirumangalam, and her senior S. Angala Eswari (19), along with four other girls, were walking down the Perumal Koil Street towards the bus stand from college at about 2 pm when a man carrying a bottle threw the contents on Meena.
“She screamed in pain and when I ran to her rescue, he threw it at me too,” a sobbing Eswari, who suffered burns under her lower lip and left hand, told Deccan Chronicle. Meena sustained serious burns on the entire right side of her face, arms, neck and back and parts of her chest.
The other girls ran to a nearby house for safety while the assailant ran away. The girls and locals called the ambulance which rushed the duo to Government Rajaji Hospital. While police sources said Meena sustained at 30 per cent burns, GRH Dean B.Santha Kumar said it was 15 per cent. Meena’s mother Murgeswari (37), a daily wager, lost her husband just 22 days ago.
“My child was consoling me that she was there to take care of me but now she is lying in a hospital bed.” She said she had no knowledge of her daughter being eve-teased or stalked by anyone and wondered why the assailant threw acid on her. Eswari, a second year B.A. student, said, “I have had no problem in the last one year. It has been just over a month since the college reopened. I have never seen that middle-aged man before. I think Meena was his target.” A doctor treating Meena said a drop of the corrosive acid has gone into Meena’s right eye.
The dean, however, said her vision has not been affected and she is stable. The girls have been shifted to an air-conditioned ward. A team of specialists comprising an ophthalmologist, general surgeon and a plastic surgeon will give them specialised care and treatment, he said. “The burns, I presume, are superficial. I sincerely hope that the epithelium (outer layer of cells covering the skin) gets peeled off obliterating the need for plastic surgery. The healing process can be natural if they are protected from infection,” the dean said.
