A 45-year-old woman was allegedly forced to drink acid on a train, but her misery did not end there as three women constables of the Uttar Pradesh police then took selfies with the victim, which went viral.
The shocking case also caught the attention of state chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi, who visited her while the police claimed to have arrested the two accused persons identified as Bhondu Singh and Guddu Singh.
A probe was ordered into the "insensitive" conduct of three lady constables.
According to police officials, the incident came to light when the woman got off the Allahabad-Lucknow Ganga Gomti Express at Charbagh station here and gave a written complaint to the government railway police.
She had written it being unable to speak, they said.
According to the complaint, two persons forced her to drink acid around 10.30 am on Thursday.
This was allegedly the fourth attack on the woman: she was allegedly attacked with a knife in 2012 and with acid in 2013, police sources said.
Two men had allegedly gang-raped and attacked her with acid over a property dispute in her home at Unchahar (Raebareli) in 2009, 100 km from Lucknow, they added.
The woman works with a cafe run by acid attack survivors in Lucknow and had gone home on March 10 as her daughter was taking Class 10 examinations, police sources. The victim told the cops that she was returning on Friday when the incident took place.
She was then taken to the King George's Medical University for treatment where three women constables, deployed to protect her, took selfies with the victim in the hospital bed.
The purported photographs, which went viral, show the three constables sitting near the bed of the victim.
A Satish Ganesh, IG (Lucknow Zone), termed the three constables "insensitive" and promised "immediate action" against them.
During his visit, Chief Minister Minister announced a Rs 1 lakh assistance for the woman. Women Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi also visited the victim and assured all help for her.
YOGI ADITYANATH VISITS GANG-RAPE SURVIVOR MADE TO DRINK ACID. 2 ARRESTED
A 35-year-old gang-rape survivor in Uttar Pradesh is fighting for her life after two men attacked her and poured acid down her throat on a train to Lucknow yesterday. The two accused named by the woman were arrested today, hours after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited her at a hospital where she is in the ICU.
This is the second acid attack on the woman, whose eight-year-old rape case is about to go to trial.