Daijiworld Media Network (SR)

Mumbai, Jun 13: The death sentence of Ankur Narayanlal Panwar (25), who has been convicted for the acid attack and murder of Preethi Rathi in 2013, was commuted to life imprisonment by the Bombay high court on Wednesday.

A division bench, including Justice BP Dharmadhikari and Justice Prakash D Naik, read the judgement and upheld the conviction. Reading out the operative part of the judgement, the bench said, "the conviction under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 326 (b) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) is upheld. The death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment."

In 2016, a special women’s court had sentenced Panwar to death for killing 23-year-old Rathi by throwing sulphuric acid at the Bandra railway station on May 2, 2013. Panwar’s was the first case in which an acid attack accused was given death penalty.

The heinous incident happened when Rathi had come to join Naval hospital in Mumbai. She lost her vision after the attack and sustained dreadful injuries. After spending a month in hospital Rathi died due to multiple organ failure. In January 2014, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch arrested Panwar from his house in Delhi’s Narela.

Though the women’s court sentenced him to death, his lawyers in Bombay High Court, as per Panwar’s appeal against the sentence, argued that he had no intention of murdering Rathi but only wanted to injure her.