A 28-year-old man from Gaighata in North 24-Parganas district has been arrested for allegedly helping his friend throw acid at his estranged wife, police said.
Rahul Mondal alias Jewel was arrested near his home in Gaighata early on Monday.
The woman was returning home from her office when she was confronted by her husband Palash Roy and Mondal at the base of the footbridge near Tank Number 8 in Salt Lake in September this year.
Roy took out a bottle of acid and flung it at her, the police said.
A police team took the woman to hospital. The woman had then then lodged a complaint against Mondal and Roy.
“The woman had suffered acid burns on her face and hands,” a doctor who had treated her said.
According to an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate the men had fled to Bongaon and had switched off their cellphones. Roy is still on the run and the cops are trying to track him down.
“We had mounted electronic surveillance on both but their cellphones were switched off. We had received an information that Mondal was spotted near his home. We then sent a team to pick him up,” said the officer.
Another officer said that they were trying to track down Roy and have activated their human intelligence network.
“We will question Mondal as we need to find out the source of the acid as well as Roy’s whereabouts,” the officer said.
A court in Salt Lake has sent Mondal to police remand for five days.
