BK, 20, of Fulashi-8 of Ramechhap district was sent to custody soon after he was arrested weeks after the attack in Kathmandu. The two girls -- Sangita Magar and Sima Basnet -- were attacked with serious burn injuries on February 22 this year while they were sitting at the classroom of a Basantapur-based coaching center.According to the registrar of the district court, Dhurba Upreti, a single bench of judge Hari Pratap KC handed down the sentence with an imprisonment of 10 years for the acid attack on Magar and Basnet.
Earlier, the government attorney's office, Kathmandu, had filed an attempted murder case against BK at Kathmandu District Court seeking maximum possible punishment for the accused.
Police had arrested BK on March 19, four weeks after the incident, from his rented room at Tokha Kathmandu.
BK had confessed to police that he plotted to take revenge with the girl, with whom he had a relationship, after the relationship turned sour after the girl's family members disapproved of their relationship on caste grounds.
He had confessed to the police that Magar, 16, whose family shared the same rented house with him in Jhochhen, forced him to move elsewhere upon learning that he was from the so-called lower caste. Magar's family members had also complained that they were mistreated in the rented room frequently.
After the attack, he was not only hiding from the police but also from his family members under the pretext of collecting money, which was lent to his relatives in India. After several attempts to attack the Magar family, BK attacked the girl after learning that she was attending coaching classes early in the morning near her rented room.
Magar, originally from Khaniya-8 of Ramechhap was the prime target, and Sima Basnet, 15, originally from Paurahi-1 of Rauthat district, were injured and hospitalized for months.
The court has yet to make public the full text of the order.
In the lack of specific legal provisions to deal with acid attack incidents, the district attorney had filed a case against the accused demanding at least 10 years jail charging him with attempted murder.
A few months ago, the Lalitpur District Court had instructed the government to formulate appropriate legal provisions to deal the cases related to acid attacks.
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