PATNA: In a gruesome act of violence, a group of men in Bihar’s Begusarai district injected acid into a tractor driver’s eyes, blinding him in both his eyes, as punishment for having an affair with his employer’s wife and eloping with her.
Gautam Kumar, 30, was abducted by nearly 20 men and beaten up mercilessly before they injected acid into his eyes with a syringe. As he lost consciousness and lay still, the perpetrators thought he was dead and threw him by a roadside. The incident occurred barely a kilometre away from Teghra police station on Friday night.
“He has lost sight in both his eyes. He has also sustained several deep internal injuries in the attack,” said Dr Ravi Kumar, a doctor at a hospital in Begusarai where Gautam is being treated, on Sunday. Gautam was brought to the hospital by unidentified passersby.
A few hours before the attack, tractor owner Dayaram Singh’s wife had returned and visited Teghra police station. She reportedly told police that she had left home at her own accord. Since an FIR about her missing was lodged by Singh at the police station ten days ago, police produced her at a local court, which asked her to return to her husband’s home and she complied.
“Dayaram Singh has been arrested. We are looking for the men he had sent who actually perpetrated the ghastly crime,” said Begusarai DSP BK Singh. In the FIR Dayaram had lodged on February 6, he had named Gautam Kumar as the man with whom his wife had eloped, added the DSP.
Dayaram’s brother, Pankaj Singh, had allegedly called Gautam Kumar to visit the police station on Friday evening, telling him that Dayaram’s wife wants to live with him and so he could take her along. “When an incredulous Gautam came, he was picked up by Pankaj and several other villagers and brutally attacked,” said a police official.