Three months on,suspect in acid attack on Delhi girl walks out of jail

After coming out,he touched the feet of his waiting father Azadsingh and uncle H S Chaudhary.

Three months after he was brought from his home in Haryana to Mumbai and arrested,23-year-old Pawankumar Gahalon walked out of Byculla Jail Friday noon following bail from the Bombay High Court in the case of an acid attack that killed nursing graduate Preeti Rathi.

After coming out,he touched the feet of his waiting father Azadsingh and uncle H S Chaudhary,a retired assistant commissioner of police with the Delhi Police. Pawan managed a brief smile,but spoke little.

Five days after an unidentified masked man hurled acid at 25-year-old Preeti at Bandra Terminus in May,a team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) reached Pawankumars home in Rohtak in Haryana.

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There was a knock on the door around 9 pm on May 7 and I opened it. The policemen told him I had to come with them to Delhi for questioning. I agreed and left with them. After spending that night at Maharashtra Bhavan in Delhi,we left for Mumbai on May 8. The next day,I was placed under arrest, he said.

Pawankumar is a final year BTech student

at the Bhiwani Institute of Technology and Science.

His mother Mala,who has refused solid food ever since he was arrested,will only break her three-month-long fast once he eats his first meal upon returning home.