In the wake of an acid attack on a 17-year-old girl, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Thursday, December 15, issued notices to two e-commerce firms — Flipkart and Amazon — over the alleged easy availability of acid on their platforms. “The Commission has learnt that the accused person had bought acid through the online shopping portal 'Flipkart',” DCW said in its notices to the chief executive officers of Amazon and Flipkart.
“The Commission has also learnt that acid is easily available on leading online shopping platforms such as 'Amazon' and 'Flipkart' which is illegal. The easy of availability of acid on online platforms is a matter of grave concern and needs to be checked urgently,” the notice said. The Commission also sought a detailed action taken report and other information from the two firms by December 20.
DCW has asked for the reason for availability of acid on the e-commerce platforms, license obtained by the platform for selling acid online, and details of sellers who have placed 'acid' as a product. IT has also asked whether the seller’s licenses were checked, whether the photo IDs of people buying acid online were sought, and sought a list of customers who had bought acid online.
17 साल की लड़की पर जो एसिड फेंका गया वो Flipkart से मंगाया था। Amazon पे भी ऐसिड बिक रहा है। सोचिए कितना आसान है किसी के लिए भी तेज़ाब ख़रीदना…बटन दबाओ, घर बैठे तेज़ाब की Home Delivery पाओ! मैं Flipkart और Amazon को नोटिस जारी कर रही हूँ, उनकी जवाबदेही तय होनी चाहिए! pic.twitter.com/aE15c2zbAO
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) December 15, 2022
It also asked for a copy of the policy adopted by the platforms regarding sale of government regulated products online, and details of persons responsible for allowing sale of acid on the portals along with details of action taken against them.
Police have arrested three accused in the case and found that the main accused had procured the acid through an e-commerce portal. A 17-year-old girl on her way to school was attacked with acid on Wednesday, December 14, by two bike-borne youths in West Delhi's Mohan Garden area.
The girl has sustained eight per cent burn injuries and is undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital's Burns ICU, officials said, adding that the accused probably threw nitric acid on the victim. However, only a forensic examination would confirm the type of acid used in the crime, they said. Police identified the accused as the girl’s neighbour Sachin Arora (20) and his two associates Harshit Aggarwal (19) and Virender Singh (22).
With PTI inputs