Agra: An Aligarh court on Thursday sentenced three men to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for an acid attack on a woman and four members of her family after she refused a marriage proposal. The woman, then in her early 30s, suffered 80% burns, including severe injuries to her face.
Three Found Guilty in Acid Attack Case
Additional sessions judge Vipin Kumar has convicted Tilak Singh, also known as Fauji, along with Harisingh and Khamaniram, for multiple offenses under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The charges include voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323), assault or criminal force against a woman (Section 354), intentional insult (Section 504), criminal intimidation (Section 506), and causing grievous hurt by the use of acid (Section 326A). Each of the defendants has been fined Rs 50,000 as part of the sentencing.
Additional district govt counsel Mepe Singh said, “She raised an alarm and her family members confronted Tilak. Later, he returned with two of his friends carrying sticks and a bottle of acid. The three assaulted the woman, her parents, uncle and aunt before throwing acid on them. The four family members also suffered burn injuries. All five were initially taken to a govt medical facility and later referred to a private hospital.
The case dates back to Dec 29, 2017, when the survivor stepped out of her house to throw garbage. The court also ordered that the Rs 1.5 lakh collected as fines from the three convicts be distributed equally among the injured. During the trial, the defence claimed that the three had been falsely implicated due to previous enmity.
The prosecution said Tilak attempted to molest her as she refused to marry him. Describing the offence as being of a “very grave nature”, the court noted that the three had no previous criminal history, but held that the seriousness of the crime warranted a strict custodial sentence. The court, however, relied on the statements of the injured witnesses, medical evidence and other material on record, observing that their accounts consistently supported the prosecution’s case. After the judgment, the three were taken into custody and sent to district jail to serve their sentences.