6 held for acid attack on Dalits in Jhansi

Over two dozen people suffered burn injuries after they were attacked with acid by a group following a dispute over collecting water from a hand pump in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi. Six of the accused have been arrested.

Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar P. said: "We have arrested all the six accused. Additional police force have been deployed in the village to prevent any unwanted incident while a detailed investigation is on."

The incident occured in the Basaar village on Tuesday night.

Five people suffered serious injuries and were rushed to the Jhansi medical college while police registered an FIR against six persons.

All the injured were from the Scheduled Caste community.

According to reports, there are only two hand pumps in Basaar village. The incident took place when one Angoori Devi went to fetch water from the hand pump and one of the accused Rajesh objected.

This led to an argument which escalated soon as people from both sides gathered. As the argument heated up, a crowd collected around the house of the accused who threw acid on them from the roof.

One accused was caught by the victims and thrashed severely while locals informed police about the clash and acid attack.

A police team reached the village and took the injured to the community health centre from where five with serious injuries were referred to the Jhansi medical college.

An FIR was lodged against six accused, namely Rajesh, Santosh, Devendra, Umesh, Sonu and Banmali in Uldan police station and all of them were arrested on Wednesday evening.