New Delhi The Delhi high court has upheld the life imprisonment awarded to two men for an acid attack on a woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura in 2014, directing both to pay ₹2.5 lakh each to the victim as compensation, noting the gravity of the offence and its extensive impact on the life and livelihood of a victim.
The bench of justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal also upheld the 10-year-imprisonment awarded to the co-accused.
“Depending on what is finally paid as fine by the appellants and compensation received by the victim, this court directs that the balance amount (out of total compensation of ₹500,000) be paid to the victim under Uttar Pradesh Victim Compensation Scheme, 2014,” the court said in its order of October 13.
The incident occurred in June 2014, when the victim was returning home from a temple. According to the prosecution, the woman was being harassed by one of the convicts, and she had lodged a complaint against him.
Two of the three convicts challenged their prison sentences before the high court on the ground that there was no proof that the substance which was thrown on the victim was acid or any corrosive substance.
Denying them relief, the court noted that testimonies of all the medical personnel are “clearly and categorically dispositive” of the fact that the victim “suffered serious chemical burns which had resulted in a severe deformity of the face including loss of almost complete vision in her left eye”.
The court also rejected the appellant’s claim that the victim had “fabricated” the case, saying it is “impossible to accept that any person would go through such tremendous pain and intense medical process just to implicate somebody falsely for an assault”.