Man gets 4 years RI for brutal assault
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, MAY 27
The city fast track court on Thursday sentenced a 35-year-old man to rigorous imprisonment for four years by holding him guilty of brutally assaulting a girl in 2006 who had refused to marry him.
The Court had also sentenced accused with fine Rs 1 lakh.
The Fast Track Court Judge Vijaya Pol has sentenced Vasco resident Andre Fernandes on the charge of assaulting Sweta Zantye with a chopper.
“Taking into consideration the fact that accused had the audacity to assault the victim girl with coita in broad day light in a busy market place, no misplaced sympathies should be shown to the accused who challenged the law openly…,” the Court observed.
The accused will have to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one year if he fails to pay the fine amount. As per the case of the prosecution the accused attacked victim girl while she was at work. She worked as an accountant at a shop in the Mapusa market.
He retaliated by assaulting her as he could not tolerate her “No.” Besides the victim, prosecution said, her family was also opposed to the marriage proposal of the accused.
The defence pleaded leniency saying the accused was the only breadwinner in the family and his wife recently delivered a baby girl, however Public Prosecutor Melina Pinto argued that the accused had brutally attacked the girl and hence should not be liable for leniency.
The Court also took into account the statement of the victim girl that she has been unable to work because of the severe impact on her body due to the attack.
