Kounsar Bashir
It was the winter of 2014 when crime was a rare happening in society. Newspapers across the valley reported that a 20-year-old law student had been attacked by acid. The news brought the entire valley to a standstill. Shaheena (name changed) was leaving her college when she suddenly saw two young boys inside the car. As they passed, they threw some liquid at Shaheena’s face.
Th 20-year-old was outside her college waiting for a bus in Nowshera Srinagar. Her colleagues were on the other side of the road when they suddenly spotted Shaheena groaning in pain. They ran towards her and took her to nearby Soura Hospital, Srinagar in an Auto.
During their journey towards Soura, the duo saw her face burnt. In fact, acid was thrown on her face.
The 313-page judgment by Principal Sessions Judge Srinagar convicted two persons for attacking Shaheena with acid when she was 20 years old and was studying in the eighth semester of her BA.LLB.
The High Court of Jammu Kashmir has convicted the duo under Section 326 A of IPC (Acid attack), Section 201 (destruction of evidence), and Section 120 (offence punishable with imprisonment).
A conspiracy hatched
The incident took place on December 11, 2014, when two youths namely Irshad Ahmed Wani @ Sunny a resident of Wazir Bagh, Srinagar, and Mohammed Umar Noor, a resident of Bemina Srinagar on board a white color Maruti car threw acid at Shaheena.
On this complaint, police station Soura lodged FIR Number 136/2014 for an offense punishable under Section 326-A RPC. “A white color Maruti car, on the bonnet of which there were black lines and on its rear side windscreen something like “Munsa” was written, was slowly coming from the opposite side. The moment this Maruti car reached Shaheena, a water-like substance was thrown on her face from that Maruti car, and then the car fled. He and his colleague ran towards Shaheena and saw her face burnt. In fact, acid was thrown on her face,” the complainant had said.
When the Police began their investigation, the first thing to be taken into account was the seizure of the clothes of the victims that were half burnt. Police said that it also took possession of the mobile phone along with the sim card of the victim. Police also began searching for the vehicle and received the call data records of the seized mobile phone. On examination of the call details, it was found that the victim was mostly in contact with two numbers.
One of the owners of these numbers was called to the Police Station who said the sim was being used by Irshad Amin alias Sunny. The law college students told the Police that the victim had friendly relations with Irshad.
During the investigation, it came to the fore that Irshad had left the state. The Police brought him back and questioned him. Sunny revealed the involvement of his friend and business partner Mohammed Umar Noor in the commission of the crime in which his right hand also got a burn injury. On this clue, the Investigating agency started searching for the accused Umar, who too had fled the State. The Police arrested and started questioning Umar.
Irshad took his friend and business partner accused Mohammed Umar in his confidence and hatched a conspiracy whereby he planned that if Shaheena could not be of Irshad @Sunny, then she should not be of some other person as well.
In furtherance of this conspiracy, both of them went to Kupwara in a silver color Lancer vehicle bearing No. DL9CC-0597 and purchased acid and one glass beaker from a shop there. It was on the 6th of December, 2014 vide, the accused persons purchased from a shop 500 ml of Sulphuric acid and a glass beaker of 250 ml capacity.
In furtherance of a criminal conspiracy, the accused persons committed the act, whereby Umar threw acid on the injured in a lane at Tawheed Abad, Nowshera, while she was moving to her Law College and thereby ruining her life by badly disfiguring her and made her future dark, which would be a stigma so far as her social identity is concerned.
Umar allegedly disclosed to the Police that as per the already hatched conspiracy with Irshad, he used the Maruti car No. JK01L-0940 of his uncle namely Irshad Ahmed Dar committed the crime at Tawheed Abad Nowshera. While throwing the acid at Shaheena, his right hand also got burnt.
Thereafter, Irshad met him. Both of them went to the compound of Umar’s house where they fixed back both the front and rear side number plates of the vehicle, which Umar, prior to the occurrence, had taken out and kept in the dickey of the vehicle.
They wiped out the sticker of the name “Munsa” from the rear side windscreen of the vehicle, red cross stickers on the rear side of the windscreen of the vehicle, and also the black tape lines erased and thrown in a drain near Umar’s house.
The stains of acid, tape, and stickers were cleaned with water and thereby the shape of the Maruti car was changed, the duo disclosed in the court.
Revenge for Rejection of Love
On the same day i.e.11th of December 2014, the Principal Kashmir Law College had also written a complaint to the Police alleging therein that one of their female students of B.A, LL.B 8th Semester, while coming to the college, was attacked by acid by some unidentified person, who was reportedly awaiting her in a car near outside the residence of Late G.M.Mir at Nowshera. The Principal had requested the SHO to investigate the matter and apprehend the culprit at the earliest.
One day he (Irshad) called the victim and told her to deboard the bus and threatened her with dire consequences. He told her that if she (the victim) does not come down from the bus, he will come inside the bus. He entered the bus, shouted in the bus and dragged her, and alighted her from the bus. The victim had gotten frightened.
One of Shaheena’s friends said that one day she was on the bus when she received a call from Shaheena asking her (friend) to rescue her. Shaheena told her friend that she was at the footbridge. When she reached the footbridge, she called the victim but, she did not receive her call.
Thereafter, Shaheena received her call and was crying over the phone and told her friend to save her and told her that the Irshad will kill her. “When I reached there, I saw the hair of the victim was messy and her eye was badly injured,” Shaheena’s friend said.
The accused alleged that in the month of September 2011, he performed Nikah with the victim, and the same was performed by a Moulvi at Sopore. His friend from Sopore Rafiq Ahmed Magray took him to Moulvi. That Moulvi Sahib was perhaps from Sopore and the said Moulvi did not enter their Nikah in any register. “The Nikah majlis took place in the house of Moulvi Sahib at Sopore,” Irshad had alleged.
He also said that there were four witnesses to this Nikah, one was Rafiq Ahmed Magray, the Moulvi in whose house the Nikah ceremony took place, his wife and son Irshad Ahmed were there. “The cousin of Shaheena also was there. At that time, there was no witness from the side of Shaheena but her cousin was there,” Irshad had claimed.
As per Irshad, they did not tell anyone about this Nikah. His friends including Moulvi Rafiq were apprehended by the police and Rafiq had allegedly confirmed the Nikah had taken place. Irshad met Shaheena once a month during her college days which was confirmed by a classmate of Shaheena who said they knew Irshad by face. Shaheena, however, has denied any Nikah having taken place.
Though it is not clear if the Nikah had taken place, the Public Prosecutor as per the order learned during the course of arguments that there was indeed a relationship between the victim and the accused. Other two witnesses also testified about the relationship.
During their relationship, Irshad started harassing Shaheena and tried to control her. He used to force her that she should cover her head with a dupatta while going to college that day because Shaheena was not used to wearing a dupatta. As Irshad got abusive and started beating Shaheena, she started ignoring Irshad which came to the fore during the course of the investigation and the call records. The detailed call reports obtained by the investigating agency have also proved their contact over WhatsApp calls and messages.
He also visited several seers (Faqeers). He got Talisman (Taweez) from some seer so that she develops an interest in him again, but it didn’t work. He also went to several practitioners of ‘black magic’ who asked for Shaheena’s photograph. Both objects were later recovered by the Police.
Despite a lot of persuasion, Shaheena’s conduct was becoming indifferent towards Irshad which he could not tolerate. “So he decided that if the victim cannot ‘belong to him’ (Irshad Amin Wani) he will not let her ‘become someone else’s as well,” the Police said in their Chargesheet.
When nothing worked, he took his friend and business partner in confidence who knew about his relationship with the victim but didn’t know the victim, personally. So he’s able to identify Shaheena, Irshad showed Umar her photograph on his mobile phone.
To understand the streets better, they did a review of the streets and by-streets around the law college, Nowshara, and Irshad helped Umar understand all the entry and exit points of the Law College Shaheena studied at. To execute the plan, the two drove in his vehicle to Kupwara where they purchased acid and a beaker which were kept with Umar. As per the plan, Umar threw that acid on the victim’s face on the 11th of December, 2014.
Meanwhile, Shaheena stated that on the day of the occurrence, after getting off the bus at the Nowshera bus stop, she was walking on the road toward her college, and all of a sudden, something splashed in her face. She felt a burning sensation on her face and eyes and something water-like also went into her mouth, which she spitted out as it felt acidic.
Her juniors, who were walking behind her, held her from the back. She handed over her phone to them and told them to inform her friends in the college and family members. She also stated that when the water-like substance was thrown at her, she lifted her head and saw a white Maruti car and a boy who had thrown the water-like substance at her.
A few days later, the survivor was taken by her family members to Apollo Hospital Chennai in connection with her treatment. Following this, Shaheena was on a liquid diet and was not able to talk to anyone, because her whole face was covered. To that date, she has spent 35 lakhs on her treatment.
Since then she is continuously under treatment at the Chennai hospital.