Dental student alleges acid attack threat from lovelorn pal

Bengaluru: A 21-year-old final year dental student has alleged that she was being harassed, assaulted, and threatened with an acid attack for a year by a friend, who claims to be in love with her.
Shankar (name changed), a retired army officer and doctor, in his complaint to Govindarajanagar police station, stated that his daughter Ananya (name changed), was being harassed by Mithun (name changed) since last Sept.
Shankar received a phone call from an unknown woman around 5.20pm on July 27. The caller introduced herself as Ahalya, his daughter’s college mate. She told him that Ananya had taken her iPhone and was not returning it.
After Ananya returned home, Shankar asked her if she had taken an iPhone from someone. She broke down and explained that she met Mithun last year through her mutual friends. A few weeks later, he started speaking ill of her friends and also told tales against her to them. He manipulated her to believe he’s the only true friend to her. In Sept, he proposed to her and forced her to accept it, despite her saying she has no such feelings for him.
He cut his hand with a blade and threatened her that he will end his life if she fails to fall in love with him. He also claimed to have written a suicide note, identifying her as the prime reason for him taking the extreme step.
Mithun hit himself on his head with a glass bottle and again forced her to love him. He used to follow her to college and other places and harassed her. When she warned that she would complain to her father, he claimed to have contacts with well-known rowdies and CCB sleuths and that she could do nothing to him. He also threatened to get her father and younger sister killed by hiring supari killers and disfigure her face with acid. He also threatened to morph her photos and upload them on social media to tarnish her image.
Mithun became possessive about her, and abused her when she would delay or did not attend his phone calls. He would take her for drives in his car and physically abuse her, slap and punch her on the nose. During one such fight, when she got off the car and said she would never meet him again, he snatched her iPhone 14 and smashed it on the road. He then brought her a new iPhone 15 Pro. When she stopped meeting him, he went near her house, made her sit in his car, pulled out a dagger, and threatened to kill her and himself.
Unable to bear his harassment, she tried to kill herself by consuming excess sleeping pills a couple of months earlier. Her parents had taken her to hospital and she had then claimed that she tried to kill herself due to academic pressure.
A senior police officer said a case has been registered, and they are investigating the matter.