Man who killed a woman by throwing acid in her face when she rejected his proposal is sentenced to death in India

A man who killed a woman by hurling acid in her face when she rejected his marriage proposal has been sentenced to death in India in what is being seen as a legal landmark.  

Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse.

Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal. 

Her threw sulphuric acid on her in a fit of jealously outside a railway station in Mumbai in May 2013.  

She died in hospital of multiple organ failure the next month.  

'The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP.  

Nikam added: 'This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman.'

Police said Panwar, a hotel management graduate, had committed the heinous crime out of jealously when she rejected his marriage proposal. 

He had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career.  

The victim's family welcome today's decision and said the death penalty should now be swiftly carried out.

'We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay,' Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP.

Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice.

Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal, said: 'It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty.' 

About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures. 

Experts said these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and social stigma. 

India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid to try and curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners claim that it remains easy to purchase. 

Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict - delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women - to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest.

'We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it,' Apeksha Vora told AFP.

During the trial, Vora had pleaded leniency for her client and said he was his family's sole breadwinner.- Daily Mail