The IT capital Bengaluru hit the headlines in April 2022 when a woman faced an acid attack on her way to office. It took two weeks for the police and a manhunt across states to nab the attacker.
With no concrete leads on the whereabouts of the attacker, a team of more than 200 police personnel branched out across states in South India. Eventually, a devotee’s tip-off helped the police nab the accused who had become a ‘sanyasi (monk)’.
Acid Attack
On April 28, 2022, around 8.30 am, the victim was on her way to the office. When she was getting to the first floor of her office building, a man came from behind and threw concentrated sulphuric acid on her and ran away.
She sustained severe burn injuries on her hand, chest, head, backside and legs.
A police officer said, “We received the information about the attack soon and when we visited the hospital, despite being in pain, the victim gave us the name of the suspect – Nagesh Babu, who was her neighbour. She was a gritty woman.”
The woman, then 24, an MCom graduate from a middle-class family, was also preparing for banking examinations. She lived at her uncle’s house in Bengaluru and was gearing up for her elder sister’s marriage which was scheduled on May 8.
The Motive
Following the complaint, the police also got hold of CCTV footage. A police officer said, “The victim had given the name and also the motive. We questioned her uncle who narrated the entire episode.”
Nagesh Babu, then 27, the owner of a garment factory, was a tenant in the house of the woman’s uncle for seven years and used to stalk her. He proposed to the woman on multiple occasions but his advances were spurned. However, the woman did not inform her family about Nagesh. But on April 27, 2022, Nagesh Babu followed her and tried to forcibly marry her. This time, the woman informed her aunt and uncle about it.
As the matter escalated, the woman’s uncle asked Nagesh to vacate the house and also called the latter’s elder brother to inform him about the incident. The next day, Nagesh Babu carried out the acid attack.
‘Devotee Police’
While it was not difficult to ascertain who the culprit was, it became a challenging task to track him down. A police officer said, “Usually, in crime cases, we get to know the motive after the arrest of the accused when we question him. But in this specific case, we knew the motive. But arresting him became a huge challenge.”
A police officer who was part of the investigating team said they were under severe pressure to arrest the culprit as the case received national attention. At that time, Kamal Pant was the Bengaluru city police commissioner and he had deployed a huge number of police personnel for the manhunt. Home minister Araga Jnanendra was also collecting information from the top cops every day. Many civil groups staged protests demanding the arrest of Nagesh Babu.
“We searched for possible leads and found out that Nagesh’s mobile phone was last active in Hoskote under Bengaluru Rural, which is also close to the Tamil Nadu border. Nagesh had made the last phone call to his brother wherein he admitted to the crime. He disposed of the mobile phone before leaving Hoskote. Multiple teams visited several places in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala in search of Nagesh,” the police officer said.
However, after getting no leads, the Bengaluru city police on May 4 sought public help and released multiple photographs of Nagesh. “In every state, we released photographs of Nagesh Babu with text in multiple languages. However, we were unable to track him… there were no results for at least two weeks.
“We had done every possible thing to track Nagesh Babu. We had picked up his sister and brother for questioning. We also tried checking his debit card usage but he had disposed of the card. He had also sold machinery from his garment factory before the incident,” the police officer added.
On May 13, 2022, the Bengaluru police received a tip-off from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district. A police officer said, “The local police had received information from a devotee that a sanyasi at an ashram resembled Nagesh Babu. The informant came across the photos of Nagesh Babu released by the police.”
Two Bengaluru policemen visited the ashram disguised as devotees and spent nearly an hour there to make sure that the person of interest was Nagesh Babu. He was dressed as a sanyasi and was helping the ashram authorities. Once the police confirmed his identity, they nabbed Nagesh Babu and returned to Bengaluru. On May 14, 2022, Kamal Pant in a press meet announced the arrest of Nagesh Babu. By then, Nagesh Babu who had tried to escape the police near Kengeri was shot in his leg by one inspector Prashanth.
A police officer said that after the acid attack, Nagesh Babu had reached an ashram in Tamil Nadu and had expressed his desire to become a sanyasi to serve the people. Without conducting any verification, the ashram authorities provided him with food and shelter. He did not have any reason to come out of the ashram, helping him to remain in hiding.
Present Status
After the incident, the state government bore the expenses of the victim’s treatment as she had to undergo multiple surgeries. The state government also provided her with a job. On the other hand, in August 2022, the Bengaluru city police filed a 770-page chargesheet, which included the statements of 92 witnesses, before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court.
Though Nagesh Babu applied for bail, the court rejected his plea. Nagesh Babu had claimed that he was innocent and was suffering from gangrene but the court rejected the bail plea considering the seriousness of the offence. Nagesh Babu continues to be in judicial custody.
On the other hand, the victim’s uncle said she was under severe depression but the support of the media and the public helped her to bounce back. “She is doing well in her life now,” he added.
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