Indian man sentenced to death for killing woman with acid

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court has sentenced a man to death for killing his neighbor by throwing sulfuric acid at her for refusing to marry him three years ago.

It is the first death sentence given for an acid attack under stringent laws introduced by the government to curb crimes against women following the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

Prosecutors said the Mumbai court sentenced Ankur Panwar on Thursday after finding him guilty of killing the 23-year-old woman, who died of serious burn injuries.

They said Panwar followed the woman on a train from New Delhi where they lived and attacked her with acid as she got off in Mumbai to begin a nursing career with the navy. </s> An Indian court sentenced a man to death on Thursday for murdering a woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his marriage proposal, in a landmark judgement.

Ankur Panwar was found guilty on Tuesday of hurling sulphuric acid on 24-year-old Preeti Rathi in a fit of jealousy outside a railway station in the financial capital Mumbai in May 2013.

Rathi, who was a neighbour of Panwar's in New Delhi and had just arrived in Mumbai to start a new job as a nurse, died in hospital of multiple organ failure the following month.

"The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases," public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP.

The Supreme Court says capital punishment should only be carried out in "the rarest of rare" cases in India, among a dwindling group of nations that still have the death penalty on their statute books.

"This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman," said Nikam.

Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice.

"It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty," said Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal.

About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures. Experts say these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and battle social stigma.

India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid in a bid to curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners say it remains easy to purchase.

The victim's family applauded Thursday's decision, saying it should now be swiftly carried out.

"We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay," Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP.

Police alleged Panwar, reportedly 26, and a hotel management graduate, had committed the crime out of jealousy after she rejected his marriage proposal and had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career.

Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict -- delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women -- to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest.

"We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it," Apeksha Vora told AFP.

Nikam successfully argued that Panwar's attack had been pre-meditated. Vora had pleaded leniency for her client, saying that he was his family's sole breadwinner. </s> MUMBAI: An Indian court sentenced a man to death Thursday for murdering a woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his marriage proposal, a decision applauded by the victim’s family.

Ankur Panwar was found guilty on Tuesday of hurling sulphuric acid on 24-year-old Preeti Rathi in a fit of jealousy outside a railway station in the financial capital Mumbai in May 2013.

Rathi, who was a neighbor of Panwar’s in New Delhi and had just arrived in Mumbai to start a new job as a nurse, died in hospital of multiple organ failure the following month.

“The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases,” public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told Agence France-Presse.

The Supreme Court says capital punishment should only be carried out in “the rarest of rare” cases in India, among a dwindling group of nations that still have the death penalty on their statute books.

Panwar’s lawyer said they would appeal the verdict—delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women—to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai’s highest.

“We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it,” Apeksha Vora told Agence Fance-Presse.

Police alleged Panwar, reportedly 26, and a hotel management graduate, had committed the crime out of jealousy after she rejected his marriage proposal and had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career.

Nikam successfully argued that Panwar’s attack had been pre-meditated. Vora had pleaded leniency for her client, saying that he was his family’s sole breadwinner.

“We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay,” Hitesh Rathi, Preeti’s brother, told AFP.

Hundreds of acid attacks occur in India and other nations every year, but experts say these figures are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg, with scores of survivors facing lifelong scars and social stigma. AFP </s> A man who killed a woman by hurling acid in her face when she rejected his marriage proposal has been sentenced to death in India in what is being seen as a legal landmark.

Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse.

Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal.

Her threw sulphuric acid on her in a fit of jealously outside a railway station in Mumbai in May 2013.

She died in hospital of multiple organ failure the next month.

'The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP.

Nikam added: 'This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman.'

Police said Panwar, a hotel management graduate, had committed the heinous crime out of jealously when she rejected his marriage proposal.

He had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career.

The victim's family welcome today's decision and said the death penalty should now be swiftly carried out.

'We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay,' Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP.

Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice.

Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal, said: 'It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty.'

About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures.

Experts said these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and social stigma.

India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid to try and curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners claim that it remains easy to purchase.

Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict - delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women - to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest.

'We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it,' Apeksha Vora told AFP.

During the trial, Vora had pleaded leniency for her client and said he was his family's sole breadwinner. </s> Ankur Panwar was convicted for throwing acid on Preeti as she apparently refused his proposal to marry him.

A special women’s court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to Ankur Panwar for throwing acid on Preeti Rathi at Bandra station on May 2, 2013.

The court on Tuesday convicted Panwar, who was 23 years old when he committed the crime, with the intention of causing burns and committing murder.

At the City Civil and Sessions Court, judge Anju Shende convicted Mr Panwar, a chef who was working with a premium hotel and was the breadwinner of a family of five under section 302 (punishment for murder) and 326 B (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of the Indian Penal Code.

Panwar’s family said they will move High Court in appeal against his conviction and will also plead for the case to be shifted to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam sought death penalty as he said the tendency of the accused may cost the lives of many other girls

Preeti had secured a nursing job at the INHS Asvini Hospital and had just reached Mumbai from New Delhi when acid was thrown at her. She died due to burns and injuries a month later.

Panwar, currently lodged at the Arthur Road Jail, lived near Preeti’s neighbourhood in Narela, Delhi. He has been convicted for throwing acid on Preeti and her family members as she apparently refused his proposal to marry him.

Defence lawyer Apeksha Vora said Preeti died due to medical negligence. She said her client had been falsely implicated because he was arrested seven months after the incident took place.

However, the prosecution contended that Panwar was guilty as Preeti had declined his proposal for marriage.

The trial lasted for one-and-a-half years during which time the prosecution examined 37 witnesses, including five eyewitnesses and 11 doctors. </s> Image copyright Courtesy: Hindustan Times Image caption Preeti Rathi's parents grieve over a photograph of their daughter

A man in the Indian city of Mumbai has been sentenced to death for a fatal acid attack on a woman at a busy railway station three years ago, in what is being seen as a legal landmark.

Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse.

Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal.

It is the first such sentence for an acid attack in India. Many such attacks go unpunished, campaigners say.

Panwar, 25, was convicted of murder and other offences at a special court in the city on Tuesday. He is likely to appeal against the verdict in a higher court.

On Thursday, the special court said that the crime fell within the "rarest of rare" category which justified the death penalty.

Ms Rathi, who suffered severe injuries to her lungs and eyes in the attack on 2 May 2013, died a month later.

A month after her death, India's Supreme Court ordered federal and state governments to regulate the sale of acid.

Image copyright Courtesy: Hindustan Times

The court ruled that acid could only be sold to people who showed a valid identity card. However, critics say that it is still widely and easily available.

According to government figures, there are hundreds of such attacks a year; but campaigners say the real figures are much higher. </s> First capital punishment in Maharashtra in an acid attack case

In the first such order in an acid attack case in Maharashtra, a special women’s court here sentenced Ankur Panwar to death on Thursday. He was convicted of the charge of throwing acid on Preeti Rathi at Bandra station in 2013 after she chose to pursue her nursing career, declining his proposal for marriage.

Special Judge Anju S. Shende said: “According to the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the facts of the case and the recent acid attack judgments by the Supreme Court, the accused is sentenced to death… , subject to confirmation by the Bombay High Court.”

She said the accused could appeal against the judgment within 30 days.

The court gave its judgment based on the statements of eyewitnesses and the fact that he was unable to explain the acid marks on his hand. It observed: “He wanted to have her and he could not get her, that is why he wanted to destroy her. The height of brutality in acid attacks is more than that in the cases of rape. Rape is considered as destroying the very soul of the victim, but even then if she is kept at a safe place she can stay without disclosing her identity; but in the case of an acid attack, they [the victims] have to move around with their bodies. I consider him a sadist as called by the prosecutor and I did not find that he could be reformed.”

On May 2, 2013, Preeti came from New Delhi to Mumbai by train to take up a nursing job at the INHS Asvini Hospital.

Panwar, Preeti’s neighbour in Narela, followed her on the same train and threw acid at her when she alighted at Bandra.

The Mumbai District Legal Services Authority awarded Rs. 2,02,000 to Preeti’s family after she died of burns and injuries a month after the attack.

Defence lawyer Apeksha Vora said Preeti had died because of medical negligence as the acid was not proved to be sulphuric acid, and Panwar was falsely implicated because he was arrested seven months after the incident. However, Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said Panwar threw the acid on Preeti as she wanted to pursue her career in Mumbai and he wanted to marry her. </s> NEW DELHI — India’s top court on Friday upheld the death sentences of four men who were convicted in the fatal gang-rape and torture of a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in the Indian capital nearly five years ago.

The court held that the nature of the crime, which triggered massive protests across India, made it a fit case for the death penalty. It described the assault as “most brutal, barbaric and diabolical,” according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The victim’s father said he was happy with the court judgment and demanded that the convicts be hanged quickly.

“The court heard our voice and gave justice,” Badri Singh said.

Prosecutors said the four — Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh — took their victim to the back of a private bus in New Delhi, raping her and then damaging her internal organs with an iron rod. She died two weeks later of injuries in a hospital in Singapore, where she was taken for treatment.

The outrage over the New Delhi attack prompted quick action on legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. Indian lawmakers also voted to lower to 16 from 18 the age at which a person can be tried as an adult for heinous crimes.

Defence attorney A. P. Singh, representing three of the men, said the court should have given a chance to reform and avoided the death penalty. He said he would seek a review of Friday’s judgment from Supreme Court judges.

Ram Singh, the bus driver and the fifth suspect in the crime, was found hanging in his cell in Tihar prison in March 2013, months before the suspects were convicted.

The sixth suspect was just months short of 18 years when the crime took place. He walked out of a correction home in December 2015 after spending three years — the maximum punishment for minors — sparking public outrage and an overhaul of the juvenile law.

Indian courts are notorious for delays as more than 30 million cases are pending before them.

In view of the massive protests across the country, the Indian government put the gang rape case on a fast-track trial.

Swati Maliwal, chief of the New Delhi Commission for Women, said people in India were not scared of committing crimes because of long delays in bringing them to justice.

“The fact is that the road to justice is very, very long in this country,” she said. “Even in this case, it has taken five years. But at least in five years, we are coming to a conclusion. There are women in the country who have been fighting court battles for 10 to 15 years.”

At least six rapes were taking place in the Indian capital every day, she said.

“Nothing much has changed because there is no fear among people that if they do something wrong, they will be punished,” she said. </s> Jharkhand court on Wednesday sentenced 11 convicts, including a BJP worker, to life imprisonment for lynching a 55-year-old man in Ramgarh on the suspicion of carrying beef.

They had beaten Asgar Ansari to death and set his vehicle on fire in June 2017 when they suspected him of carrying beef in his van. Days before the attack, two of the accused had raised the issue of Ansari being involved in the illegal trade of beef at a peace meeting held by Ramgarh police.

On March 17, the fast track court found the 11 men guilty under Section 120B in the Indian penal code indicating that the attack was pre-planned.

Three of these men are members of a local cow protection committee, according to reports. They are convicted in other charges as well in addition to this. According to a repors, this is the first time there has been a conviction in case of cow vigilantism.

The accused are Nityanand Mahato, of the BJP media cell, Vicky Saw, Sikander Ram, Vikram Prasad, Raju Kumar, Rohit Thakur, Kapil Thakur and Uttam Kumar were convicted under IPC sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 435 (mischief by fire), Indian Express reported.

On June 29, last year, Raj Kumar had followed Asgar Ansari while he was in constant touch with Mishra and another main accused Chhotu Verma, according to Indian Express. Mishra and Verma both had connections with gau rakshak samiti had surrendered to the police on July 3.

They all chose a common point which was notified to them. They met at a spot near Bazar Tand and started beating him and did not stop till he died. They then set his vehicle on fire. Police told Express that the murder of Ansari was well planned.
A court in the Indian city of Mumbai convicts and sentences Ankur Panwar to the death penalty for a fatal acid-throwing attack.