HC confirms life term to acid attack accused

Observing that police and other authorities should act with iron hands to bring to book culprits involved in brutal murders of young girls, the Madras High Court today upheld the life sentence awarded to a man who carried out a fatal acid attack on a young woman software engineer in Karaikal in 2012.
Dismissing an appeal by accused Suresh Kumar against his conviction and life imprisonment awarded by Puducherry Additional Sessions Court, a bench, comprising Justice S. Nagamuthu and Justice V Bharathidasan, confirmed the sentence.
The case related to the attak on 23-year old Vinodhini on November 14 at a bus stand in Karaikal in Puducherry by Suresh Kumar who was in one-sided love with her.

The woman, who battled for life after the attack left her face totally disfigured, died 90 days after the incident.
The bench in its order found fault with the trial court for not considering death penalty, saying it ought to have examined the question of sentence elaborately to find out whether the offence committed by the accused falls within the rarest of rate cases as propounded by the Supreme Court so as to impose capital punishment.
Unfortunately, the trial court has not undertaken any such exercise. The Puducherry government also did not appeal challenging the quantum of punishment, hence it was forced to confirm the life sentence, the bench said.

Finding fault with the trial court for 'miserably' failing to recommend compensation under Section 357-A of CrPC, the bench directed Puducherry State Legal Services Authority to award Rs three lakh to the father of the woman.

Vinodhini, employed in a software company in Chennai, was on her way to the bus stand in Karaikal to return after celebrating deepavali the previous day when she came under the acid attack.
Unable to bear the loss of her daughter, mother of Vinodhini committed suicide after the verdict delivered by the trial court on August 20, 2013.
The bench, while referring to the recent murder of another software engineer Swathi in a city railway station, said "even before we could sit to write this judgment, we have heard of a similar incident where yet another girl Swathi has fallen victim of a brutal attack in the Nungambakkam railway station in a broad day light in public view.

"The recurrence of these kinds of brutal murders of young girls, either out of sexual obsession or failure of love or for any other reasons, will tend to create a sense of insecurity among the womenfolk.
"We believe that in order to check recurrence of these kinds of heinous crimes the police and the other authorities in the system should act with iron hands to bring to book the culprits to have speedy trials and to get deterrent punishments," the Judges said.