Acid attacks to be controlled with iron hand: HC

The life sentence awarded to a man for throwing acid on his wife for her failure to meet his dowry demand was today upheld by the Delhi High Court which said the "dastardly and cowardly" acid attacks should be controlled with an "iron hand."
"Throwing acid on helpless victims mostly women is on rise, which is dastardly and cowardly act and the same is to be controlled with an iron hand. It sometimes leave them disfigured blind and in this case even death," the bench of justices G S Sistani and G P Mittal said and upheld the trial court's order convicting Nitin Kumar Arora and sentencing him to life imprisonment.

The bench also concurred with the trial court's January 7, 2009 order on sentence in which the trial judge had said that "life imprisonment would be complete life term without any commutation on account of conduct of the convict by the state".
Citing Supreme Court's recent judgement in an acid attack case and relying on a study conducted by Cornell university (New York) and data from 1999 to 2010, the bench said the number of acid attack cases are on rise.
According to prosecution, Arora, a resident from Gokulpuri area, had married Khushi on May 31, 2005 and she had been physical assaulted by her husband and other family members for not bringing sufficient dowry.

On November 20, 2006, following a quarrel with her husband, Khushi had left for her working place (a cosmetic shop) where Arora went with a jug full of acid and poured it on her, as per the police case.

After battling for life for about a month, she succumbed to her injuries on December 17, 2006.
The court rejected Arora's argument that he had no intention to cause death and that he could be prosecuted for offence of causing grievous hurt.
The bench said, "It cannot be said that the appellant (Arora) was not aware that in case he throws a jug full of acid it would not cause death of Khushi.