New Delhi
The alleged acid attack on a Delhi University student that sparked city-wide outrage has been exposed as a calculated hoax. Delhi Police on Monday arrested the 20-year-old student’s father, Akil Khan, after he confessed to orchestrating the entire incident as a plot for revenge. The shocking turn reveals that the student did not suffer a genuine acid attack, but rather sustained minor burns by applying ordinary toilet cleaner to her hands at her father’s instruction. The motive behind this sinister fabrication was to frame one of the men initially named as her attacker, Jitender, and his two associates.
The police investigation took a sharp turn when the wife of the prime suspect, Jitender, came forward with a serious counter-allegation against the student’s father, Akil Khan, filing a complaint of sexual assault and blackmail during her employment at his factory from 2021 to 2024. Investigators now believe that Khan devised the false attack to discredit the victim’s husband and neutralize the threat of the sexual assault case against him. This suggests the alleged attack was purely a malicious tool to settle a deeply personal and criminal score, diverting attention from Khan’s own legal troubles.
The police probe quickly dismantled the student’s initial narrative. Forensic teams found no traces of corrosive acid at the scene near Laxmibai College, identifying the substance used as only a common cleaning chemical. Furthermore, technical surveillance proved that the main accused, Jitender, was miles away from the crime scene, performing a gig in Karol Bagh at the exact time of the alleged incident, completely confirming his alibi. In light of these findings, Akil Khan was arrested both for fabricating the attack and in connection with the separate sexual assault complaint. Authorities are expected to take strict legal action against both the father and the student for plotting the hoax and misusing critical police resources.
Concerns Over the Rise of Fabricated Cases: The unmasking of this elaborate hoax has reignited serious public and legal concerns over the rising trend of fabricated criminal cases being used for revenge or to settle personal scores. Such malicious reporting carries a deep and damaging impact on the justice system and society as a whole. Each proven false case, especially involving a heinous crime like an acid attack, erodes public faith in law enforcement and generates cynicism, making people skeptical of initial reports and sensational media coverage. Furthermore, the most severe consequence is the prejudice cast upon genuine victims of violent crime; when hoaxes are exposed, they fuel arguments that women often misuse laws intended for their protection, which can lead to delays, insufficient empathy, and unnecessary scrutiny during the investigation of true victims.
The resources consumed by investigating a high-profile, staged case, which involves significant time from the police, forensic experts, and the judiciary, are diverted away from resolving thousands of pending and genuine criminal cases, thereby straining an already overburdened legal system. Finally, the men falsely named in this case faced an immediate threat of arrest, social stigma, and the irreparable damage to their reputations that accompanies an allegation of an acid attack; even after being cleared, the emotional and professional toll on the falsely accused remains devastating. Legal experts stress that while the protection of victims is paramount, the law must also be applied strictly against those who attempt to subvert the process of justice through deliberate misinformation and malice.
