SINGAPORE: Suspecting that her boyfriend was cheating on her, a woman poured hot water on the man's groin, causing hot water burns over 12 per cent of his body.
Zareena Begum P A M Basheer Ahamed, 50, was found guilty on Monday (Sep 28) of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to the victim by means of a heated substance.
The man was hospitalised for almost a month and said the burns, which will leave permanent scars, were "very painful" and made him "want to die".
Both defence and prosecution agreed on certain facts in the trial, including the fact that Zareena began her relationship with the victim, a married man, in 2006.
They began having an affair, with the victim promising to marry Zareena. They had several quarrels during their relationship of 11 years, breaking up a few times but reconciling after.
However, in 2015, Zareena began suspecting the victim of having an affair with another woman. She ran into the victim with the other woman at a ferry terminal in January 2017.
On Jul 4, 2017, Zareena invited the victim to her house where they ate and watched television. When he fell asleep, Zareena took the victim's phone from his bag and saw text messages that the other woman had sent to him.
According to the prosecution, this was the last straw for Zareena, who was furious and "wanted to teach him a lesson that he would never forget".
She boiled hot water in the kitchen before emptying a mugful of it on the victim's groin area while he slept soundly at about 1.30am on Jul 5, 2017.
The man awoke to feelings of pain and heat at his groin and lap, which he said was the worst pain he felt in his life.
He stood up and jumped to clear the excess liquid before removing his clothes and covering himself with a towel.
When he asked Zareena "why you do this to me", she purportedly said "serve you right".
Weeks after the incident, she purportedly taunted the victim by asking him to get his "new girlfriend to get the aloe vera" for him.
After the incident, the victim suffered burn injuries over 12 per cent of his total body surface area and was hospitalised for 26 days and given 39 days' medical leave. He could not work for about six months after the incident.
Zareena had argued in her defence that what happened was purely an accident and that it was the victim's own fault that he became injured.
According to her account, she had poured hot water into a mug to drink it when the victim pulled her left arm, causing the water to spill onto him.
She will return to court for mitigation and sentencing next month.
For voluntarily causing grievous hurt by a heated substance, she could be jailed for life, or jailed for up to 15 years and fined. She cannot be caned as she is a woman.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...ed-pouring-hot-water-boyfriend-groin-13155776
oh.so painful.
