Relief for acid-attack victims
Cases of molestations are reported daily and go unpunished. More intense are cases that are dealth with light in our decades of constitution.
In a hospital in Delhi this week is 27-year-old Sonali Mukherjee’s 28^th plastic surgery after a brutal acid attack in 2003. Sadly, the perpetrators are out on bail and living their easy lives while Sonali’s family struggles with funds for operations that run into lakhs.
The crime is reported under Section 320 of grievous hurt, Section 322 of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, 326, causing grievous hurt by means of an instrument and experts opine that it should have a separate Section for itself. Of all the Sections mentioned above, ten years of imprisonment is the maximum punishment. In the said case, the lawyer was a relative who lost the case at the behest of the accused at a bribe of Rs. 50,000.
Reports of such offence across the continent has compelled Pakistan and Bangladesh to list the offence separately and strict penalty.
A 2012 cabinet resolution to form a separate provision under 326A and 326B of IPC are pending in the parliament which, if passed will make acid attacks a non-bailable offence entailing either a life imprisonment or of up to 10 years, informs Aparna Bhatt, a counsel for Delhi Commission for Women.
Among the ruckus the widespread availability of acid has created is a ray of hope. In a 1999 case, Haseena Fairoz, who had been burnt by her boss got justice when a court granted her Rs. 5 lakh as compensation and the accused a life imprisonment.