The family of a teenaged girl who had been attacked with acid in East Champaran district had tried to kill her to preserve their “honour”, police said today.

The girl had sought to pin the blame for the attack on a boy, who hails from the same village, with whom she had fallen in love, in a bid to force him into marriage.

The Telegraph is withholding the names of the boy and the girl to avoid any embarrassment to them.

The girl was attacked on the night of May 5 at Mathia village under Kalyanpur police station, around 130km northwest of Patna. She was struck with sharp-edged weapons and subsequently acid was poured on her wounds. The girl somehow survived and was taken to a local hospital from where she was referred to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur, where she is presently being treated. She is now reported to be out of danger. The girl, while recording her statement in the presence of a magistrate, had claimed that the boy and his friends were responsible for the attack. The reason, police now say, was that she wanted to save the real attackers and also because she wanted to put pressure on the boy to marry her by implicating him in a false case.

Police investigations have, however, revealed that the real attackers were the family members of the girl, including her father Chhabila Mahto. The police say they did so because they had fixed her marriage with a different boy but the girl had dared to defy their decision. The girl, in order to get married to the boy of her choice, left her village on April 29 and went to Bangalore where her brother-in-law Krishna Mahto works. From there she planned to travel to Chennai, where the boy works.

But when she spoke to the boy from Bangalore, he told her that he didn’t feel for her in the same way that she did and she should abide by her family’s wishes.

Meanwhile, the girl’s father had lodged an informatory with the Sangrampur police station stating that he suspected the boy and his family members’ role in instigating her to leave home. When police started inquiries, some locals shared the details of the one-sided love story.

In the meantime, the girl’s brother-in-law Krishna convinced her to return to her village and accompanied her on her return journey. They started from Bangalore on May 3 and reached Muzaffarpur on May 5. From there, the girl and Krishna reached Chakia railway station, the nearest to Sangrampur, where her family members, father and two uncles were waiting on two bikes. The girl and four male members started for home on the night of May 5 on two bikes. But, the police say, instead of taking the girl to the village, the relatives took her to an isolated place near Mathia village where they tried to kill her. The police learnt that the acid used in attacking the girl had been purchased from a shop in Kalyanpur and based on the description provided by the shop owner, the sleuths zeroed in on the girl’s father and other relatives on May 8.

“During interrogation, the girl’s father and his relatives accepted their hand in the crime. They said they wanted to kill her to save the honour of the family,” East Champaran superintendent of police Vinay Kumar said.

“We will soon record the statement of the girl afresh as the arrested persons have admitted to the crime,” he said.

Those arrested so far in the case are Chhabila Mahto (father of the girl), Rajendra Mahto, Narain Mahto (both uncles) and brother-in-law Krishna Mahto. Additional director-general headquarters Ravinder Kumar, too, said the Motihari incident was not a case of gang rape but an attempted honour killing.