Acid attacker's conviction upheld by HC, but spared the noose

The Bombay High Court Wednesday upheld the conviction of a 25-year-old man in the 2013 Preeti Rathi acid attack and murder case here, but commuted his death penalty to life imprisonment. A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and P D Naik partly allowed the appeal filed by the convict, Ankur Panwar, challenging the death penalty awarded to him in 2016 by a special court.

It was the first instance of death penalty being awarded by a court in the country in a case of acid attack. "The conviction under section 302 (murder) and 326 (b) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) is upheld. The death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment," the bench said.

Rathi, a 23-year-old nurse and Delhi resident, who was to join an Indian Navy hospital in Mumbai, died after an acid attack here in May 2013 by Panwar, who was stalking her. The convict was Rathi's neighbour in Delhi. On May 2, 2013, as Rathi got off a train from Delhi at the Bandra Terminus here, Panwar, who was following her, flung a bottle containing sulphuric acid on her face.

Rathi lost her vision and sustained major injuries due to the brutal attack. She spent a month in various hospitals, and on June 1, died of multiple organ failure at Bombay Hospital. Panwar, 25, was arrested by the police and tried in a special court which pronounced him guilty in the sensational case which had attracted nationwide attention.

While awarding the death penalty to Panwar, the trial court had observed that "acid attack is worse than rape". Panwar, in his appeal, had claimed he should not have been awarded the death penalty since the prosecution in the case did not have a "reliable" case.

His plea claimed that while the prosecution relied mainly on the statements of eyewitnesses and some relatives of the victim, it was apparent that some of the statements were incorrect and had been "tailor-made" to suit its case. The defence team claimed the police had also failed to take any fingerprints from the acid bottle, and therefore, had no forensic evidence linking Panwar to the crime.

As per the prosecution, Panwar, who had followed Rathi to Mumbai from Delhi on the same train, had attacked her as he was jealous of her success, and because she had rejected his marriage proposal. The police had initially arrested one Pawan Kumar Gahalon, Rathi's neighbour in Delhi. However, Gahalon was let off as the police didn't find any evidence against him.

The case was transferred to the Mumbai Crime Branch following an order of the high court. The Crime Branch had arrested Panwar primarily on the basis of statements given by key eyewitnesses, including Rathi's father, her uncle (who were with her at the time of the incident), and two other train passengers.

These four eyewitnesses had also suffered injuries in the acid attack.