New Delhi:
Observing that acid attack is one of the most horrifying forms of gender-based violence which is increasing in the country, a Delhi court has awarded life imprisonment to a man for throwing acid on his lover, leading to her death.
Additional sessions judge Rajesh Kumar Goel handed down the jail term to Delhi resident Ajay Bharti for throwing acid on his lover suspecting her to be in a relation with someone else.
"...Convict Ajay Bharti planned and then executed an act of pure, calculated and deliberate evil. He decided to wreck the victim's life by throwing acid on her," the judge said.
"One of the most horrifying forms of gender-based violence, and a growing phenomenon in India, is acid attack.
Though acid attack is a crime which can be committed against any man or woman, it has a specific gender dimension in India.
"Most of the reported acid attacks have been committed on women, particularly young women, for spurning suitors, for rejecting proposals of marriage, for denying dowry etc," the court said.
It added that "some men's ego will not allow them to accept rejection and when their advances are spurned they retaliate by throwing acid at the woman."
The court said the woman, who was married to someone else and was having kids, had suffered around 40 per cent burns due to the corrosive substance thrown on her by the convict. It also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Ajay.
According to the prosecution, the victim and Ajay were in a love relationship and due to his suspicious nature, he used to quarrel with her frequently.
Ajay suspected that the woman was having relations with another man, and on January 20, 2006, he took her to Japanese Park in Rohini on the pretext of an outing, it said.
There, he poured acid on her and ran away. After a week, the victim died at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital here.
The court also observed that generally, acid attack is a form of gender-based violence that "reflects and perpetuates the inequality of women in society" and as such is prohibited by international law.