JJ hospital, KEM hospital better equipped, cost-effective for acid attack victim's surgery: Bombay High Court

The Bombay high court on Wednesday observed that government-run JJ hospital and civic body-run KEM hospital would be better equipped and cost-effective to perform plastic surgery on acid attack victim Aarti Thakur.

The observation came after Thakur's lawyer Gayatri Singh told the court that Thakur had approached doctors at JJ and KEM hospitals because her plastic surgery scheduled at a private hospital last week couldn't be performed owing to the surgeon being unavailable.

The court had directed the government to bear the expenditure of Thakur's surgery. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on April 7.

Thakur, who was attacked at Goregaon station in January 2012, had approached the HC, seeking direction to the government to compensate her as prescribed in the state-formulated Manodhairya scheme.

Under the scheme, the state had decided to pay a maximum of Rs3 lakh to rape victims and victims in cases of violence against women. The state government had earlier informed HC that it can't pay more than Rs3 lakh to the victim, after Thakur sought Rs4 lakh to cover her medical expenses.

During an earlier hearing, the court had termed the government's decision to pay only Rs3 lakh as arbitrary and contrary to a Supreme Court order, which had said compensation of minimum Rs3 lakh should be given.