2009 Panipat acid attack case: Court puts 3 persons on trial

New Delhi, Jan 14: Three persons, including a woman, have been put on trial in the 2009 Panipat acid attack case by a Delhi court which observed that the accused cannot be given benefit of doubt if the case was not investigated properly by the probe agency.

The court framed charges for alleged offences of attempt to rape, kidnapping for ransom, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement against accused Yashwinder Malik, who was the employer of victim and was allegedly making undesirable advances towards her.

"The statement of the complainant recorded by the then CJM is sufficient to attract offences committed by accused Yashwinder Malik. At the time, when Malik attempted to make physical relations with complainant forcibly, he was employer of the complainant.

"From the statement given to the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), prima facie offences under the provisions of the IPC are made out against Malik," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Kumar Goyal said. Apart from Malik, the court also put on trial his wife Bala and Mandeep for the alleged offences of attempt to commit culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy.

An alternate charge of causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means was also framed against Bala and Mandeep by the court which said the injuries sustained by the victim were reported to be major and dangerous to life. Bala has also been charged for the offence of criminal intimidation.

According to police, the woman, who got married in 2007 and started living in Panipat, took up a job in a college there but her employer Malik started making advanced towards her. She left the job and started working somewhere else and in 2009, two men took her to Malik with deceitful means and she was confined in his car for a whole day as the accused was pressuring her to join his college again.

When she refused, she was beaten and out of fear, she agreed to join the college and thereafter Malik attempted to forcibly establish physical relations with her, it said, adding that the woman was also threatened that acid would be thrown on her face.

On the evening of November 19, 2009, when the woman was coming out of her office, a boy in muffled face threw acid on her face. Malik was also accompanying her but he received a phone call and asked her to go alone.

PTI