New Delhi: Akil Khan, the father of the 20-year-old ‘acid attack victim’, had purportedly ignored multiple calls of investigators probing a rape complaint against him. The Mukundpur man, according to the police, was instead plotting to coerce the woman who accused him of rape and blackmail into taking back her complaint.
Khan convinced his daughter to pour toilet cleaner on her hands, they added. That meticulous plan now stands busted while Khan is under arrest. The family from North West Delhi faces legal action for allegedly concocting a story.
Turns out that the woman—who had made grave charges against Khan—worked in his factory from 2021 to 2024. She had left job but to no avail. He, the police said, blackmailed her with photos and videos. Finally, the distressed woman lodged a complaint Friday with the Bhalswa Dairy police. Little did she and her family, including her husband, a painter, anticipated what lay in store.
The plan was near perfect. On Sunday, Khan’s daughter screamed in pain on the road in Ashok Vihar. Bystanders and police were informed that three bike-borne men, including the woman’s husband, threw acid on her when getting down from an e-rickshaw. The two other suspects were identified as Arman and Ishan.
The married man, she alleged, had been stalking her and that they had had a confrontation earlier. A case was registered on her complaint.
The case garnered headlines and everyone’s attention. People were outraged. And then came the twist Monday—as seen in Bollywood movies—with the arrest of Khan.
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Old disputes
Khan had allegedly persuaded his daughter—who is enrolled under Delhi University’s Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board—to join his plan saying that he would end up in jail otherwise. “His brother (Waqil) coordinated the execution. The plan was to lodge a false case against the woman’s husband and then pressure her to withdraw her complaint against him,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Bhisham Singh told ThePrint.
The girl left with her 18-year-old brother on a scooty, who dropped her 300 metres before Lakshmibai College on the ‘day’, the police said. She then hopped onto an e-rickshaw to reach the spot.
Unknown to her was that CCTVs caught the entire sequence of the scooty and e-rickshaw travel. In her statement, she had said that she was traveling in an e-rickshaw when her ‘attackers’ intercepted her. Moreover, CCTV footage also didn’t show any men on bikes at that given time.
One witness, a person involved in the probe said, saw the brother-sister duo together in the area.
“She had carried the toilet cleaner in her bag. It was also all planned. She got off (from the scooty), took the e-rickshaw. After she got off, she took the toilet cleaner from her bag and dumped it in her hands. Then she started screaming and the rest followed,” the DCP said.
The woman’s injuries were superficial in nature, the officer said, adding that no trace of acid was found on the walls—which would have been the case if acid was splashed on someone. Only a chemical was found on the ground, swabs of which have been sent for forensics.
So meticulous was the plan that Arman and Ishan were targeted for another purpose: Their family were entangled in a property dispute with the Khans. The twist in the tale, the police said, is the duo’s mother is an acid attack survivor. Khan’s relatives are under trial in connection with this episode, they added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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