Image copyright Courtesy: Hindustan Times Image caption Preeti Rathi's parents grieve over a photograph of their daughter

A man in the Indian city of Mumbai has been sentenced to death for a fatal acid attack on a woman at a busy railway station three years ago, in what is being seen as a legal landmark. Ankur Panwar was found guilty on Tuesday of hurling sulphuric acid on 24-year-old Preeti Rathi in a fit of jealousy outside a railway station in the financial capital Mumbai in May 2013. Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam sought death penalty as he said the tendency of the accused may cost the lives of many other girls

Preeti had secured a nursing job at the INHS Asvini Hospital and had just reached Mumbai from New Delhi when acid was thrown at her. Prosecutors said the Mumbai court sentenced Ankur Panwar on Thursday after finding him guilty of killing the 23-year-old woman, who died of serious burn injuries. Police alleged Panwar, reportedly 26, and a hotel management graduate, had committed the crime out of jealousy after she rejected his marriage proposal and had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career. Special Judge Anju S. Shende said: “According to the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the facts of the case and the recent acid attack judgments by the Supreme Court, the accused is sentenced to death… , subject to confirmation by the Bombay High Court.”

She said the accused could appeal against the judgment within 30 days. There is no second thought about it,” Apeksha Vora told Agence Fance-Presse.
A court in the Indian city of Mumbai convicts and sentences Ankur Panwar to the death penalty for a fatal acid-throwing attack.