70-year-old acid attacker jailed

A septuagenarian was sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment for throwing acid on a woman of his locality in which the victim partially lost her eye sight.

The 70-year-old convict, Ramakant Rai of Muzaffarpur, was also slapped with a fine of Rs 30,000.

Holding him guilty under Section 326 A-B of the Indian Penal Code, the Additional district and sessions judge of Muzaffarpur, Tarun Kumar Singh, asked the convict to pay two-thirds of the fine to the victim, who not only suffered burn injuries but also lost sight in her right eye. The judgement appears to be the first-ever punishment meted out in an acid attack case in Bihar after the Supreme Court direction. The Supreme Court in July 2013 had directed all the state governments and Union Territories to frame rules to stop counter sale of acid.

Eventually, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 came into being which had provisions to slap Section 326 A and 326 B on the acid attack accused so that they could be meted out harsher punishment. In Muzaffarpur case, Rai was arrested on July 29, 2014 after he threw acid on a woman of Mal Toli village under the jurisdiction of Minapur police station of the district. 

The additional public prosecutor Rameshwar Sah produced substantial evidence against Rai which led to his conviction. “I welcome the judgement. But I would have been more happy if the accused would have been served life sentence for the crime,” said the victim.

Notably the minimum punishment in acid attack case is 10-year rigorous imprisonment while the maximum is life sentence.