Mangaluru, 5 March

Karnataka government on Tuesday announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to each of the three female students who suffered burns following an acid attack at the Government Pre-University (PU) college at Kadaba in Dakshina Kannada district as Chairperson of the State Women's Commission (SWC) visited them in hospital.

The families of the students will be given an immediate compensation of Rs 4 lakh each, and the government will also bear their entire medical expenses, SWC Chairperson Nagalakshmi Chaudhary said after visiting the private hospital here, where they are being treated.

"The students are fine. I am only worried about the (ongoing) PUC exam, which I will sort out with a solution after talking to the education minister," she told reporters after speaking to the three students and their families.

The students expressed their concern over whether they would be able to take the exams being conducted by the PU Board in the current examination cycle itself, and requested that arrangements be made for them in this regard. “I understand the worries and moods of the children. I also have a son studying in PUC. I will meet the education minister," Chaudhary said.

Doctors treating the three students said they will be fine, but two of them may have to undergo plastic surgery after normal treatment for two weeks.

The three second-year PU students suffered burns injuries following the acid attack by a youth at the college in the taluka headquarters town on Monday, police said. The youth has been identified as Abin Shibi, 23, an MBA student hailing from Nilambur taluk in Malappuram district of Kerala, said a police official.

Shibi, who has been arrested, claimed during interrogation that one of the victims had spurned his amorous advances, and he took this "extreme step to show his disappointment in love". He threw acid on the 17-year-old girl who was with her classmates and it fell on two of them also.