The parents of Raj Kumar, who suffered burn injuries in an acid attack on Sunday evening, have alleged that the tormentors were not yet arrested because they were hand in glove with police.

The police, however, said the incident was being “blown out of proportions”.

Raj Kumar alias Raja, 10, sustained injuries in his face and eyes after the criminals poured acid on him when he was playing with his friends at Sarifabad under Malsalami police station. Raja was rushed to Guru Govind Singh Hospital in Patna City from where he was referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).

The victim’s mother, Indu Devi, who lodged a complaint in connection with the incident, accused the police of failing to arrest the assailants despite naming the accused. “The police are hands-in glove with the accused. The criminals are still at large,” she said on Monday.

Indu alleged that Kamlesh, a resident of Sarifabad, along with some of his associates, poured acid on Raja following a dispute with the family. “We are a family in minority. We are being victimised by some influential residents of the locality on one pretext or the other,” she said, adding that she had complained to the station house officer but in vain.

Dr Atul Kumar, who attended on Raja at the Guru Govind Singh Hospital, told the police that the boy was referred to the PMCH after first aid treatment.

Station house officer (SHO) of Malsalami police station Bhagwan Prasad Gupta said raids were on to arrest the accused. He added: “The accused are absconding after the incident, which is being blown out of proportions.”

Raja’s case is not an isolated one in the city. Sources said at least five such incidents, involving three children, have been reported from various areas in Patna City in the past six months. In most of the cases, the accused were evading arrest.

A woman allegedly threw acid on a middle-aged man when the latter was attending a meeting of the local bodies around a month ago. Deedarganj police station (SHO) Surendra Kumar Singh said the incident was a fall-out of a land dispute.

In addition, two teenaged girls received burn injuries when some people threw acid on them while they were sleeping on the roof of their house in the Chitwan locality on October 21 last year. The police said the incident appeared to be a fall-out of an affair.

A police officer attributed the reason for the rise in acid attack cases to “the police’s negligence to invoke relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC)”. The accused should be booked under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC, he added.