Youth gets life term for acid attack on woman cop

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has sentenced a Kolhapur youth to life imprisonment for flinging acid at an assistant sub-inspector for refusing to marry him in 2007, leading to her death.
Refusing to show leniency, the court dismissed the defence plea to convict Shamrao Patil for a lesser offence and upheld the trial court’s order holding him guilty for the woman’s murder.
Patil's lawyers claimed that he was frustrated as the policewoman had turned down his marriage proposal despite his “deep love” for her, and he had no intention to kill her.They urged that he should be convicted for the less grave offence of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ and the court order his release from prison as he had already served seven years’ imprisonment.
“Acid was thrown at Vidya on the face and other parts of the body, unmindful of the injuries he was inflicting and perhaps creating scars that would last for a lifetime,” said an HC division bench of Justices P V Hardas and Anuja Prabhudessai.
Vidya, who was with the police’s wireless department, was acquainted with Patil. According to the prosecution, she had repeatedly turned down his proposal for marriage, as he was unemployed; she asked him to get a job first. On the morning of September 28, 2007, he landed up at Vidya’s flat, but she sent him away, saying she had to go to work.
Around 2pm, when she came home for lunch, Patil again arrived at her door, claiming his mother had sent pickles for her. The prosecution claimed that Patil took out a plastic bottle, emptied its contents (acid) on her, and fled. Vidya’s friend, who witnessed the scene, and her neighbours took her to hospital. Over a fortnight later, Vidya succumbed to septicaemia caused by 40% acid burns. Patil, arrested 10 days after the incident, was charged with murder. A trial court in 2010 sentenced him to life imprisonment, which he challenged in the high court.
“(Patil) had intentionally caused the burn injuries by a substance that he knew to be corrosive, capable of causing deep burns. He had intentionally selected Vidya's face… to inflict maximum pain and to cause maximum burns. He had inflicted the injuries intentionally and the injuries were sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.
According to us, therefore, he could have no other intention than to cause Vidya's death,” said the judges.