Brinda NS was attacked with a machete when she was walking home from college.
With her hands wrapped up in bandages, a 16-year-old in Bengaluru is recovering from an attack with machetes.
"I was heading back from college. This tractor driver and two others came and attacked me with a machete. I was protecting my face. My hands were cut. Some villagers came for help. I just fainted," Brinda NS, 16, told NDTV in hospital.
She was walking home after classes in her hometown of Mandya, 100 kilometres from Bengaluru on Saturday afternoon when three men attacked her. Two escaped, but Brinda fought hard, despite her injuries, to pin down Ravi Kumar, who has since been arrested.
A tractor driver who worked for Brinda's father, Ravi Kumar was allegedly upset because she had turned down several marriage proposals from him. The teen's father sacked him a few months ago.
Rejected and enraged, Ravikumar and two of his friends then allegedly attacked Brinda.
Brinda, who topped her school, is studying Commerce in Class 11. "Those guys put chilli powder on her eyes and attacked her brutally. She was scared to inform us that he threatened her. Earlier, we threw him out of his job. He took revenge. We are a poor family. We are worried. If her hands do not heal, what do we do?" asked her mother, Jayasheela, from her daughter's bedside.
Brinda's doctors say her injuries are severe - her nerves and veins were cut and blood vessels damaged. However, they say surgeries on both her hands have been successful and she should recover in six weeks.