Guntur, April 12: Ramavat Lalitabai (15), a ninth class student, who sutained critical burns after an unwanted suitor threw acid on her, died here this morning after battling four days with 75 per cent burns.
Doctors from four specialisations — general medicine, anaesthesia, nephrology and plastic surgery — at the Government General Hospital here tried to save the teenager with peritoneal dialysis and ventilation but gave up when she developed multiple organ failure and slipped into a coma.
Lalita was attacked with acid by Koppuravuri Subba Rao, 23, as she lay sleeping at her sister’s house in Tenali last week. They had met during her visit to Darsi in Prakasam district sometime ago and he misunderstood her friendly behaviour.
Enraged that she would rather see another person, he trudged to Tenali with a bottle of sulphuric acid stolen from a milk collection centre and wreaked his retribution. News of Lalita’s death spread like wildfire and women, dalit organisations and political parties gathered to express their ire at the hospital. They demanded a relief payment of Rs 10 lakh to Lalita’s mother Shavalibai, a daily-wage worker who lost her husband eight years ago and raised her three daughters herself. Joint collector A Sarat and RDO G Gangadhar Goud said the best they could do was Rs 1 lakh. Shavalibai appeared heart broken.
‘‘I wanted my daughter to become a graduate and get a good job. I didn’t want her to be a labourer like me,’’ she said.
Police said they would now press a slew of charges against Subba Rao, altering the attempt to murder case they had booked when he was caught after the atrocity. He now faces 302 IPC (murder) and 452 (trespass), and a whole series of raps under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. Lalita was from a Scheduled Tribe community. Koppuravuri Subba Rao (23) is tea-stall worker in Darsi.
–Agencies