Harshit Agrawal, a cyber-security researcher who had visited Rome to present a paper at a conference, found himself in a life or death situation when a gang attempted an acid attack on him. The 21-year-old from MIT College, Pune, took to Twitter to ask for help saying: “Hello Sir/Madam, I’m a student, I was in Paris and Rome for presenting my research paper in conferences and when I was returning back at Rome Metro, some people tried to throw acid on me and snatched all my bag, passport and money.” He also said: “I’ve nothing left with me, I had flight at 4.30 from Rome, but lost my passport and all documents, they’re not allowing. I don’t know what to do. I complained at the Airport police station about the same, please help me get back to India.”

Harshit tagged India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his predecessor Sushma Swaraj as well as Narendra Modi and Prakash Javdekar in his tweets. His father Sanjay Agrawal, reported: “After checking out of the hotel in the Italian capital, Harshit was about to board a metro train from one of the stations to Airport for catching a flight to Paris from where he would have taken a flight to India via Dubai. But just before he could board the train to Rome Airport, a group of men tried to throw acid on him, but he had a narrow escape. However, the unidentified man snatched from him the bag, money and documents, leaving with him with nothing at all.”

The youngster who excelled in his field was “adjudged as an excellent cyber-security researcher at MIT Pune. He had recently presented research papers in cyber-security at series of conferences in the US, the Netherlands, Paris and finally at Rome.” The Indian Embassy is making arrangements for Harshit’s safe return to India.
 

Hello Sir/Madam,
I'm student and I was in Paris, and Rome for presenting my research paper in conference, and when I was returning back at Rome Metro, some people tried to throw acid on me, and snitched all my bag, passport, money.@SushmaSwaraj @DrSJaishankar @IndianDiplomacy pic.twitter.com/TtIOulCgbo

— Harshit Agrawal (@Harshitnic) June 26, 2019

I have nothing left with me, I had my flight today at 4:30 from Rome but as I lost my passport and all documents, they're not allowing, I don't know what to do, I complaint at Airport Police station about the same, please help me get back to India.@narendramodi @PrakashJavdekar

— Harshit Agrawal (@Harshitnic) June 26, 2019

I presented my work at @hackinparis conference, and I'm student at MIT, Pune college. Please help me sir, what I need to do, I don't even have left money to go Embassy here in Rome.@GRamnathkovind @ramavshree @godvinayak @AmitShah @PMOIndia @BJP4India

— Harshit Agrawal (@Harshitnic) June 26, 2019