Roorkee acid attack: Court convicts accused for 10 years of imprisonment and grants 8 Lakhs compensation to victim
June 24, 2017The Uttrakhand High Court convicted a man for throwing acid on a 20-year-old postgraduate student and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years and to pay a fine of INR 10,000. The accused was further directed to pay a compensation of INR 5,00,000 to the victim within a period of four weeks and the State was directed to pay compensation of INR 3,00,000 to the victim also to be paid within a period of four weeks.
The bench comprising of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Sharad Sharma refused to take a lenient view on the sentence awarded to the accused. They observed, “We are of an opinion that no lenient view can be taken, taking into consideration the circumstances in which the acid was thrown on the helpless victim.”
The appeal was filed by the State before the High Court challenging the judgment passed by the lower court which acquitted the accused taking a “hyper-technical view” of the matter. The High Court set aside the judgment passed by the sessions judge and convicted the accused under Section 307 of Indian Penal Code.
The bench also issued directions for rehabilitation of acid attack victims and prevention of such instances. The court further directed all courts across Uttarakhand to conduct hearing on daily basis for concluding such trial within three months. The court has issued the following “mandatory directions” to curb and control the instances of acid attacks-
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State governments should constitute a Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for acid attack victims.
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All private medical hospitals are required to provide medical assistance to acid attack victims.
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Ban the sale of acid over the counter throughout the state of Uttarakhand except from one licensed dealer to another. The court also made it clear that if any person is found selling acid unauthorizedly then a FIR can be registered against him.
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Observing the failure of the current mechanism to curb acid attack cases, the court made it clear that immediate investigation should be started in matters pertaining to Section 326A, 326B, 354A, 354B, 354C and 354D of IPC and in case the investigation is not concluded within 7 days, the Gazette Officer should be personally responsible for the failure.
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At the same time, the court observed that due protection need to be given to the eye-witness during the pendency of the matter where the case is registered under Section 326A, 326B, 354A, 354B, 354C, 35D of Indian Penal Code till the conclusion of the trial.
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The State government is further directed to give free medical aid to the victims of acid attack till their full recovery.
These guidelines are introduced in order to prevent acid attacks by taking stringent actions against the accused.