BENGALURU: A man allegedly travelled over 400km overnight from Madurai to Bengaluru to target his estranged wife.The man then attacked her with a machete and allegedly had acid thrown at her near a private clinic in JP Nagar on Thursday, police said.The 26-year-old woman, who reportedly hails from West Bengal and works as a nurse at the clinic, is in critical condition and undergoing treatment in the ICU of a hospital, news agency PTI reported.According to police, the incident took place around 9.15am when the woman stepped out of the clinic in JP Nagar Third Phase to get breakfast.The man allegedly chased her to the basement entrance, where he attacked her multiple times with a machete and threw a liquid suspected to be acid at her.Police said the accused, identified as her husband, had travelled from Madurai on a two-wheeler on Wednesday and arrived in Bengaluru carrying a knife, machete and the suspected acid.Preliminary investigation suggests that the couple had been living separately due to marital differences.Traffic police personnel posted nearby rushed to the spot after noticing the commotion and took the man into custody.Members of the public also tried to intervene, while some people were seen recording the incident on their mobile phones.A purported video of the incident shows a man wearing a helmet attacking the woman multiple times with what appears to be a machete.Police said people may have initially hesitated to approach him fearing that they could also be attacked.The woman was rushed to hospital following the attack. Police said her condition remains critical.K Vamsi Krishna, DCP Bangalore South, said that the accused had attacked the woman with two weapons and that a liquid resembling acid was found at the scene, PTI reported.“He attacked her with two weapons, and apparently there was some liquid similar to acid. Our Scene of Crime Officers (SOCOs) team had visited the spot and collected samples. The woman is admitted to the hospital, and her condition is critical as of now,” he said.“We are verifying the acid’s nature, whether it is industrial or domestic use. After receiving the SOCO report, we will investigate this further. We are continuing the investigation,” the DCP added.According to the DCP, the couple got married in 2024 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and police are preliminarily suspecting a marital dispute as the reason behind the attack.“The couple was not living together. The woman lived in a PG here while working as a nurse, and the man (husband) worked at an oil and gas company in Chennai,” a senior official said.The DCP said the traffic sub-inspector and his staff did a “good job” in securing the accused, while members of the public also tried to stop the attack.Police have taken the accused into custody and are questioning him as part of the investigation.Further procedures will follow, officials added.(With agency inputs)
