Man handed down 14-year jail term for throwing acid on wife

A sessions court has sentenced a man to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment in an acid-throwing case. Kausar Abbas was convicted for attacking his wife Samia with acid at her brother's home within the jurisdiction of the Aziz Bhatti police station in March 2021.

Additional Sessions Judge (East) Ilyas Memon observed that the prosecution successfully proved the charge against the accused beyond reasonable doubt. He sent the convict to jail for 14 years and ordered him to pay a Rs1 million fine to be given to the victim as compensation. In case of failure to pay the fine, the accused would have to undergo additional six-month imprisonment.

"Before dilating upon merits of the case, I could not restrain myself from holding that a man of quality is never threatened by a woman of equality," the judge said.

"In this context, the accused being addictive led to his wife's relocation to her parental house and his subsequent suspicion upon her extramarital affair (as evident from charge sheet) is apparent root cause of his aggression, which steered him to commit the alleged offence," he added.

The victim testified that she was at her brother's house when accused Kausar Abbas came there and began verbally abusing and threatening her. She recounted that he took out a red-coloured bottle and poured acid/ corrosive substance on her, resulting in severe burns to her body.

The woman said that upon her cries for help, Kausar, along with his brothers Noman and Zeeshan, who were standing outside the house, fled the scene. Hearing her screams, their neighbour Sohail rushed to her aid and promptly transported her to hospital, she added.

She stated that she had relocated to her brother's house due to her husband being a drug addict and worked as maid. In his statement, the accused denied the charge, claiming innocence. An FIR was lodged under sections 336-B (punishment for hurt by corrosive substance) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).