5 men get 5-year jail in acid attack case 1936j

Kendrapada: A court in Jagatsinghpur district's Kujang has sentenced five persons, including a father and son, to five years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2009 acid attack case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each on the convicts, with an additional six months of imprisonment if they default.The convicted individuals — Magu Roul (54), his son, Tapas Roul (28), Manas Roul (30), Akshya Sethi (32) and Suresh Sethi (30) — were found guilty of attacking Kailash Sethi on Aug 20, 2009. Attackers had suspected Sethi, then 57, a farmer, of practising witchcraft, allegedly causing illness among residents in Kothiasahi village. According to the FIR filed by the victim's daughter, Sujata Sethi, the accused hurled acid and attacked her father with sharp weapons while he was cycling home from Kujang. The police subsequently arrested all five accused under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.Assistant public prosecutor Debashis Kantha said the additional district and sessions judge Dipti Prakash Brahma's verdict was based on testimonies from Kailash and 14 witnesses, along with medical reports.Despite Odisha enacting the Odisha Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, 2013, becoming the fourth state after Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to do so, human rights activist Amarbara Biswal said that witchcraft-related violence continues to plague rural areas. "Uneducated people still attack and kill many suspected witches each year," Biswal said.Kailash and his family expressed satisfaction with the court's decision, marking the end of their 16-year wait for justice.