Father, son sent to jail for life in acid attack case

A court here sentenced a man and his father to life imprisonment on Wednesday for causing permanent physical damage to a woman by attacking her with acid in 2014.

Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh sent Umesh and his father Hakim to jail for life and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them.

The court also sentenced another accused, Gyani, to 10 years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.

The case was transferred to the Delhi court from a court in Mathura on the directions of the Supreme Court in 2015, after the acid attack survivor's husband approached the top court claiming that the accused were powerful persons and had been threatening the woman's family members, due to which they were unable to appear in the Mathura court.

"It is considered that the prosecution has been able to establish that on June 3, 2014, at about 8 pm, accused Hakim, Umesh and Gyani, in furtherance of their common intention, caused permanent damage or deformity to and/or disabled the left eye of the acid attack survivor, and also caused chemical burns on her left side of face, neck, back of her left-side chest, left shoulder with upper arm, by pouring acid or other substance having acidic or corrosive character or burning nature on her, with the intention of causing or with the knowledge that they were likely to cause such injury or hurt," the judge said.

He convicted the three men under sections 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to the prosecution, while the woman was returning to her house, Hakim, Umesh and Gyani met her and threatened her that they will not spare her for lodging a complaint of alleged harassment against them.

Umesh poured acid on the woman while Hakim and Gyani held her. The woman lost the vision in her left eye and the skin on her face got scarred. Her face also got disfigured due to the incident, she had told the court.

She had also said that Umesh, who was a lawyer, had threatened her and her family members for filing the case and allegedly lodged false cases against them.