Ankur Narayanlal Panwar, convicted in Preeti Rathi acid attack case of the year 2013, will now have to undergo life imprisonment. Earlier, the killer of Preeti Rathi was sentenced to death, but the Bombay High Court has now changed the punishment of Pawar.
A division bench of justices BP Dharmadhikari and Justice Prakash D Nayak said, "Pawar is convicted under IPC Section 302 (murder) and 326 (B) (voluntarily causing acute injury by severe use of acid). At the same time, the death sentence is changed in life imprisonment.
When the petition reached the Bombay High Court for confirmation of the death sentence after the pronounced death penalty, Panwar filed an appeal against the sentence. Arguing against the death penalty, his lawyers argued that Panwar had no intention of killing Rathi, but wanted to wound her only. According to investigators, Pawar had given Rathi a marriage proposal, but panwar was upset by the Rathi's denial.
In 2016, a special woman court sentenced Panwar to death. This was the first such case, in which the accused of acid attack was sentenced to death after being convicted. On 2 May 2013, Panwar threw acid on 23-year-old Preeti Rathi at Bandra Railway Station. Rathi was selected for the post of lieutenant in INS Ashwini Hospital, Colaba in Indian Navy. She had come to Mumbai for the job.
Rathi was admitted to the hospital for nearly a month after the acid attack in May 2013. But his life could not be saved and later she died. She died on June 1 due to burns severely from acid. Panwar was arrested from his residence in New Delhi on January 17, 2014, after eight months of the crime.
