Srinagar- A court here on Thursday held two persons guilty of throwing acid on a 20-year-old girl, a law student, in Soura area of Srinagar almost after nine years.
Describing it as a “horrific case”, Principal Sessions Judge, Srinagar Jawad Ahmed, said that the prosecution has been able to establish the charges against the accused persons “beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt.”
As such, the court accepted the police’s charge-sheet and convicted the accused persons namely Irshad Amin Wani of Wazirbagh, Srinagar and Mohammed Umer Noor of Bemina, holding them held guilty for the offences punishable under RPC Sections 326-A (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid), 201 (hiding or destroying evidence of a crime) and 120-B (Criminal conspiracy).
“The established 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 No.2 (Umar) in furtherance of the conspiracy hatched by accused No.1 (Irshad) with accused No.2(Umer),” the court said, adding, “The established facts and circumstances do not leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused persons.”
The incident occurred on 11th December, 2014 and the police had filed the case based on a complaint with SHO police station Soura regarding the acid attack on the law student.
Keeping in view the seriousness of the matter, the then IGP Kashmir constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) on 12 December 2014 headed by then SP Hazratbal. The SIT undertook investigation of the case and zeroed in on a Maruti car on which word like “Munsa” was written on its rear side wind screen and subsequently arrested the accused duo.
The accused, according to prosecution, had removed black lines of tape and the sticker from the vehicle later.
“….This goes to prove that the acid bottle and beaker purchased by the accused persons five days before the occurrence and the erased black lines of tape and stickers removed from the Maruti car used in the commission of crime have been destroyed by the accused persons after committing the heinous and horrific act of throwing acid on the victim,” the court said in 312-page judgment, adding, “The accused persons have thereby caused to disappear the important piece of evidence to screen themselves from the legal peril.”
For establishing the charges against the accused persons, prosecution cited 48 witnesses in the calendar of challan. Out of them, the prosecution examined 44 witnesses. The court is likely to announce the quantum of punishment on August 19.
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