Chemical thrown on people from a cab in Kolkata
Kolkata, May 7: Miscreants threw some unidentified liquid chemical on six people, most of them women, from a running taxi on Sunday night on a posh area in south Kolkata, eyewitnesses and police said on Monday.
The taxi has been identified from the CCTV footage from a nearby building.
"A case has been registered and the investigation is still going on. The liquid thrown was not acid and officially we cannot declare what it was. It was something like battery water," a Sub Inspector of Rabindra Sarobar Police Station told IANS.
One of the victims claimed that the chemical was either some acid used in cars or that used in toilets.
"Had there been personal enmity then someone would have been attacked, but in this case, the five to six people who were attacked don't even know each other," said an eye witness.
The owner of the car has been identified and interrogated by the police.
"I visited the police station where the case has been registered and spoke to the officials. They told me that the driver is absconding leaving behind the car.
"When I tried to locate him at his residence where he lived with his mother, I found the house locked and none of them was there," the owner said.
The victims had no inkling of the attack as the car was about to pass by.
"We didn't realise anything of this sort. Initially I thought it to be dirty water or something. As it started burning I had to rinse it with water. Later, I got to know that many others had been attacked," said a female victim.
"If something of this sort happens in such a posh area, then we won't be able to move out of the house freely. It is very disturbing," she added.
As per the eyewitnesses, there were around four men inside the moving taxi.
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Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
