indianexpress.com :: Girl to miss exams after Holi balloon injures her eye

Girl to miss exams after Holi balloon injures her eye

Prashant Rangnekar

Posted online: Friday, March 21, 2008 at 0054 hrs IST

Mumbai, March 20
For 14-year-old Sneha Hotwani and her family, this year’s Holi celebrations turned sour when a few miscreants hurled a water balloon on her which nearly cost her an eye and forced her to miss her class IX examinations.

On March 16, Sneha, a standard IX student of Jhulelal English School at Ulhasnagar, was on her way back to her house at Seri Chowk in Ulhasnagar, when some unidentified miscreants hurled a water-filled balloon on her.

The balloon hit her spectacles and a piece glass from the broken spectacles pierced her face just below the left eye. The eye is swollen now.

“She was taken to the Wockhardt hospital where she was operated on,” said her father Harish Hotwani, a clerk working with the water department of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC). “The doctors have advised her rest. She would be operated again after 15 days for removing the fluids accumulated after the first operation. Her exams commence on April 2. So, naturally she has to skip her exams,” Hotwani said.

However, the family has not registered a complaint with the police. “We are not keen to register a complaint. She did not see the person who hurled the balloon as she was in excruciating pain,” Hotwani said.

“We have given instructions to all police stations to take preventive actions. Such balloons are usually thrown from the terraces of high-rises. So, we have asked housing societies to either shut terraces or take responsibility if there is any trouble. Those who are caught hurling balloons and causing injury would be booked under the Indian Penal Code,” said Joint Commissioner of Police Madhu Shinde of Thane.

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Girl to miss exams after Holi balloon injures her eye Prashant Rangnekar Posted online: Friday, March 21, 2008 at 0054 hrs IST Mumbai, March 20 For 14-year-old Sneha Hotwani and her family, this year’s Holi celebrations turned sour when a few miscreants hurled a water balloon on her which nearly cost her an eye and forced her to miss her class IX examinations. On March 16, Sneha, a standard IX student of Jhulelal English School at Ulhasnagar, was on her way back to her house at Seri Chowk in Ulhasnagar, when some unidentified miscreants hurled a water-filled balloon on her. The balloon hit her spectacles and a piece glass from the broken spectacles pierced her face just below the left eye. The eye is swollen now. “She was taken to the Wockhardt hospital where she was operated on,” said her father Harish Hotwani, a clerk working with the water department of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC). “The doctors have advised her rest. She would be operated again after 15 days for removing the fluids accumulated after the first operation. Her exams commence on April 2. So, naturally she has to skip her exams,” Hotwani said. However, the family has not registered a complaint with the police. “We are not keen to register a complaint. She did not see the person who hurled the balloon as she was in excruciating pain,” Hotwani said. “We have given instructions to all police stations to take preventive actions. Such balloons are usually thrown from the terraces of high-rises. So, we have asked housing societies to either shut terraces or take responsibility if there is any trouble. Those who are caught hurling balloons and causing injury would be booked under the Indian Penal Code,” said Joint Commissioner of Police Madhu Shinde of Thane.