A man has been jailed for seven years by a Delhi court for throwing acid at an elderly woman, her daughter-in-law and one-and-half-year-old grandson after trespassing in their house.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kiran Bansal awarded the jail term to 44-year-old Punjab resident Amarjeet Singh for trespassing and causing grievous burn injuries to Ramrati, Kiran and Santy.
"In the present case, this fact cannot be lost sight of that the convict was having no enmity with victim and still caused grievous injury to the lady and also to the child of the age of one-and-a-half-year. Child was burned up to 28 per cent whereas other victim was burned up to the extent of 30 per cent and therefore, he deserves no leniency," the court said and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Singh.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place in December, 2010 when the victims were at their home.
The police said Singh was known to the family as earlier he used to do carpentry work with Kiran's brother-in-law Naresh and due to some differences, they had parted ways.
He asked the victims about Naresh's whereabouts and when they told him he was not there, Singh entered their room and threw acid at them, police said, adding that he tried to flee from the spot but was caught by neighbours.
Police was informed about the incident and the three injured persons were rushed to a nearby hospital.
During the trial, Singh claimed that he was innocent and has been falsely implicated in the case.
The court, however, rejected his argument that the acid was thrown by Naresh, relative of the victims, and said it is "only a sham defence" that he has been falsely implicated.
"It is highly improbable that a person would burn a child belonging to his own family to the extent of 28 per cent by acid only to falsely implicate another person. It is also unbelievable that the injured mother of child would in such condition shield the actual culprit and falsely implicate the accused," the court said.
