Feb 23 2016 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Shibu Thomas
Mumbai
Noting with alarm the rising trend of young girls being attacked with acid, the Bombay high court has enhanced the punishment of a Pune youth who assailed a BPO employee for rejecting his marriage proposal.
A division bench of Justices Vijaya Kapse-Tahilramani and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi held that the seven-ye ar prison term given to accused Kailash Adagale for the 2005 acid attack on 21-yearold Neha Malaviya was not deterrent enough and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The HC has ordered the police to trace Adagale, who is absconding after jumping furlough in 2007.
“Adagale’s intention to cause permanent life-threatening danger and injury to Neha is writ large on the face of record,“ said the judges, adding, “It is clear that anyhow, by hook or crook, he wanted to have her. With that sheer madness, he has endangered her life and left her incapable to marry any other person. The punishment of merely seven years imprisonment for this inhuman and cruel act is definitely a miscarriage of justice.“ The HC noted that the incident had left Neha both physically and psychologically scarred.“Hence, no other punishment except that of the maximum punishment of life imprisonment can do real justice to her,“ the judges said. The court also ordered Adagale to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to Neha.
Additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai had contended that the jail term given by the trial court was meagre.The attack had left Neha permanently disfigured, despite multiple surgeries and skin grafting.