A week after holding two persons guilty in a "horrific" case of throwing acid on a 20-year-old law student of Srinagar in the year 2014, a court in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday sentenced life imprisonment to both the convicts involved in committing this heinous crime. The Principal and Sessions Judge Jawad Ahmed announced the verdict in the Court.
Two persons namely Irshad Ahmad Wani alias Sunny of Wazirbagh Srinagar and Muhammad Umar Noor of Bemina Srinagar were sentenced to life imprisonment in this much-publicized incident of acid throwing on a female law student of Srinagar.
"In the instant case, it has been established that in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy the accused persons have had themselves committed the horrific act of throwing acid on the victim, therefore, they cannot escape from the first ingredient of having knowledge about the commission of offence they have themselves committed", the Court observed.
The court said that it finds absolutely no material from the defence side to suggest any probable reason for falsely implicating the accused persons in this case.
"The facts, circumstances, and the chain of evidence taken cumulatively are so complete and consistent that in all human probabilities, the only hypothesis is that the horrendous act of throwing acid on the victim has been committed by the accused number two in furtherance of the conspiracy hatched by accused number one with accused number two," the court had said, adding, "The facts and circumstances do not leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused persons."
Accused tried to erase the evidence
The Court further observed that it has been also established, as has been discussed here-in-above, that the accused persons have caused to disappear the acid bottle, glass beaker erased black tape lines, and stickers from the white Maruti car used in the commission of the crime, which were an important piece of evidence in this case, just to screen themselves from the legal peril.
"Thus, both the ingredients necessary for constituting the offence under section 201 RPC is established. The accused persons have not put forth any probable defence to suggest even remotely as to why they have been implicated in this case", the Court observed
The accused number has admitted his relations with the victim. The accused number has also admitted that he had no animosity with the victim.
"Thus, for the aforesaid reasons, I find that the prosecution has been able to establish the charges against the accused persons beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt", the Judge stated in his 311-page verdict, adding, "As such, this chargesheet is accepted and the accused persons namely Irshad Amin Wani and Mohammed Umer Noor are held guilty for the offences punishable under Sections 326-A, 201 &120- B RPC. Accordingly, the accused persons are convicted for the offences punishable under sections 326-A, 201 & 120-B RPC".
A young female law student was attacked with acid in December 2014
On 11 December 2014, a young law student was grievously injured in an acid attack near Nowshera on the city outskirts while she was on her way to her college. Complainant Aaqib Javeed in his written complaint stated that he along with one of his colleagues and another person were walking on the college road.
Suddenly they saw an unknown person throwing acid at their female colleague. They ran towards her and took her to Soura Hospital, Srinagar in an Auto. The complainant had requested lodging of an FIR in the matter and the arrest of the culprit.
On this complaint, police station Soura lodged FIR No. 136/2014 for offence punishable under Section 326-A RPC. The complainant had personally filed the complaint.
Given the gravity of the offence which sent shock waves across the Valley, a Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the then IGP Kashmir A.G. Mir under the supervision of the then SSP Srinagar Amit Kumar with then SP Rayees Mohammad Bhat (presently DIG South Kashmir) as in-charge of SIT, arrested the two persons accused within a fortnight.
