Acid attack on Delhi nurse: 23-yr-old neighbour held

Police said Panwar attacked Preeti with acid in May last year because he was constantly being pushed to match the accomplishments she had made in her career.

A court remanded him in police custody till January 24.

Panwar who hails from Alwar in Rajasthan graduated from Bhubaneshwar, but failed to get a campus placement. “Panwar’s father would repeatedly tell him how successful Preeti was. This made him jealous and he decided to attack her. The intention was to deface Preeti so she would never get a job again,” Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said.

According to police, Panwar had procured concentrated sulphuric acid from a workshop near his home, before boarding the same train as Preeti to Mumbai.

Police said he attacked Preeti as she got off the train at Bandra Terminus, Mumbai, on May 2, 2013.
Preeti (25), had gone to Mumbai to join INHS Asvini Hospital in Colaba as a nurse. She was accompanied by her father Amarsingh Rathi, uncle Vinodkumar Singh and aunt Sunita Singh.

Police said as the family was walking towards the subway, Panwar tapped Preeti on her shoulder. When she turned, he threw the acid on her face and fled.

Police thought he had left Mumbai immediately on the Jammu Tawi Express. But Panwar allegedly told police that he hid on the platform for two hours and returned to Delhi on the first available train.

“Instead of going to his parents’ home, he headed to his cousin’s place in Gurgaon. He lied to his parents that he had gone to Haridwar for a job interview at a hotel,” Roy said. Panwar, Roy said, was employed at a hotel in Ahmedabad at the time of his arrest.
Preeti succumbed to burns at a Mumbai hospital on June 1.