July 2: P Lavanya, a student of computer science in the TRR College of Technology was attacked with a sickle by another student, Sudhakar Nair. The reason: she spurned his marriage proposal.

June 27: A jilted lover, Vinod, stabbed a teenage girl for refusing to marry him, and also knifed her mother. Both were admitted to the Osmania General Hospital in a serious condition.

Horrific stories such as these are becoming almost too frequent to count, and it came as a relief to many when the UPA government on Monday indicated before the Supreme Court that stringent measures were in the offing to regulate sale of acid — one of the most popular “weapons” due to its easy availability.

Warangal, for example, was shaken in December last year after three men launched a brutal acid attack on two girls, students of the Kakatiya Institute of Technology and Science, because one of them had refused a marriage proposal. Though the police shot dead the three youths who threw acid on K Swapnika, who died later, and T Pranita, who is disfigured now, it has not deterred vengeful lovers from engaging in violence, although methods vary.

On June 16, Sameera Shaikh lost her life after she was pushed down from the Charminar by one Arshad after she refused to accept his love. The couple knew each other as their fathers were acquaintances. Arshad later told the police that she refused his proposal and said she would rather just be friends with him.

... contd.