NEW DELHI: Taking suo motu cognizance over the acid attack on a 17-year-old girl in the national capital, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday issued notices to the Delhi government, the Delhi Police Commissioner and the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authorities.
The NHRC has observed that the reported incident raises serious issues of human rights violations of the victim.
“It is really very disturbing that despite several amendments in the criminal laws and measures taken by the authorities to ban the sale of acid or corrosive substances, other than for commercial or scientific purposes, it appears nothing much has changed on the ground, as the attackers are easily procuring acids - be it through offline or online,” the commission said in a statement.
"This clearly demonstrates that there is a 'lack of a monitoring system' within the administration for the sale of acids of various natures. Therefore, prima facie, it appears that there is 'culpable negligence' on the part of the authorities for failing to regulate the sale of acids within whose territorial jurisdiction the incident took place,” the statement said.
Accordingly, it has issued notices to the chief secretary of the Delhi government, commissioner of police, and the member secretary of the State Legal Services Authorities, and sought detailed specific reports within four weeks, it added. The girl was admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital’s ICU.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has also sent notices to e-commerce players Flipkart and meesho.com for ‘gross’ violations of norms relating to the sale of acid on their platforms.
“CCPA has sent notices to two e-commerce entities, namely Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd and Fashnear Technologies Pvt Ltd (meesho.Com) for gross violations relating to the sale of acid reported on their platforms. It has directed these entities to furnish detailed responses within seven days,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said in a statement.
It may be noted that two bike-borne masked men had flung acid on the girl on Wednesday minutes after she had left her west Delhi residence for school. The girl’s face was seriously injured. Following the incident, police arrested three men, including a neighbour of the acid attack victim.