Bombay HC reduces life sentence to 8 years for acid attacker who marries victim

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court set free a man sentenced to life imprisonment in an eight-year-old acid attack case in a college love affair gone awry after he said he has married his victim and intends to donate his skin for her plastic surgery.

The convict, Anil Patil, said the two had settled the matter “amicably’’ and wanted to lead a “peaceful life’’. He said he would also pay for her plastic surgery. A sessions court in Khed had, in December 2013, convicted Patil for having flung acid - an offence under Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code - sent him to a life in prison. He was also directed to pay a fine of Rs 25,000.

Patil moved the HC to challenge what he said was a “totally disproportionate punishment" in the case. He did not challenge the conviction, though.

A bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and Sarang Kotwal, who on June 27 came to the convict's aid, said that a sentence of eight years he has undergone was “more than sufficient" in the facts of the case.

“The incident appears to be an outcome of a love affair between the accused and the victim of the crime," said the HC. It appears that both knew each other for long and when Patil proposed, she had disposed. Angered, he started threatening her. And one April day in 2010, when she, still a college student, was proceeding for a lecture with two friends, Patil showed up, pulled out a bottle and flung acid on her face and shoulder. Her friends, who witnessed the scene in horror, testified later. Their corroboration led to a conviction.

The HC too found nothing wrong with the verdict of guilt. The Judge in Khed, a small town in Ratnagiri, gave him the maximum sentence permissible in law for acid attack.

The HC asked the police to confirm whether the attacker and victim were married to each other, now for a year. They indeed were, the prosecutor said after checking.

“Not only that, after the marriage the victim is required to take a treatment from a plastic surgeon and for which the Appellant has undertaken to donate his skin," said the HC.

“We find that the Appellant and the victim have decided to lead a peaceful life...It is just and necessary that the Appellant and the victim be permitted to lead a peaceful life," said the HC, partly allowing Patil’s appeal.

The HC maintained the order of conviction, but reduced the sentence to term already undergone.