A Delhi court has sentenced a factory owner to eight months in jail for the death of a woman worker and burn injuries to six others after he threw thinner at them leading to a fire.
Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Kumar held guilty Naveen Chopra, a resident of Sahibabad in Uttar Pradesh, for the offence and released him from the jail as he has already spend 10 months in prison during the trial of the case.
"I am of the view that the convict deserves sufficient punishment and accordingly it is ordered that interest of justice shall be fully met if Chopra is awarded a sentence of rigorous imprisonment of eight months under section 304 (II) (if act is done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death) of the IPC and one lakh fine and six months jail along with Rs 5,000 fine under section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the IPC," the judge said.
The court said if the fine amount is realised, Rs 90,000 should be given to the kin of 30-year-old deceased Deepa as compensation.
The court, however, acquitted Chopra's wife Mansi, who was also a co-accused in the case, on the ground that there was no sufficient evidence to prosecute her.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on October 6, 2005 in Chopra's factory in Dilshad Colony area where glass plates were being made.
According to one of the victims, there was a fight between Chopra and Mansi following which he threw thinner over the girls working in the factory. When one of the workers Deepa tried to intervene, he threw the liquid over her.
As she was standing near a heater installed in the factory, the liquid also fell over it due to which a fire broke out and Deepa received serious burn injuries leading to her death.
Nine persons including seven women workers, Chopra and Mansi had received burn injuries and they were taken to GTB hospital where worker Deepa succumbed to her injuries.
After being held guilty, Chopra sought leniency, saying he had also suffered 70 per cent burn injuries in the incident and despite that, he himself took the injured to the hospital.
Chopra also said that he has been facing trial for eight years and has remained in jail for over 10 months.
However, his plea was opposed by the prosecution which said that it was a serious offence which was against society at large and the convict deserves stern punishment.
The prosecutor said that due to Chopra's act, an innocent life was lost and several others got injured.
