Life for dad, 4 kin, who poured acid in woman’s mouth for ‘honour’ Vocal Cords In Shreds, She Had Written Down Her Dying Declaration

Life for dad, 4 kin, who poured acid in woman’s mouth for ‘honour’ Vocal Cords In Shreds, She Had Written Down Her Dying Declaration

Kanwardeep.Singh@timesofindia.com TIMES BANGALORE 22.10.2024 

Bareilly : A Bareilly court has sentenced five people, including a woman’s father, to life imprisonment for their role in an acid attack that led to her death in 2023, sealing the verdict based on the victim’s dying declaration. The woman was being forcibly married to a man from Budaun in April 2023. She called her father the next day, saying she wanted to cancel the marriage. That’s when the father plotted to kill her. The woman ’s dad was a farmer, and her elder sisters were married. She wanted to marry her neighbour and though he was from the same community the family didn’t like the idea of a “love marriage.” On the night of April 23, some family members, including her father, first took the woman on a bike. They then stopped on the Delhi-Lucknow highway in Bareilly, took her to the nearby bushes, and strangled her. Presuming her to be dead, her father asked his son to bring an acid bottle, which the accused poured on her face and in her mouth and removed all her clothes to conceal her identity. The woman miraculously managed to survive with over 40% burns and was taken to hospital by passersby in a critical condition. 

The woman, 25, was admitted to the hospital on April 24 and died six days later, soon after the police managed to record her dying statement in writing before a magistrate. Unable to speak, she wrote a note on her hospital bed, saying her father and relatives had beaten her on her wedding night before being sent with her husband, who raped her. Later, her father lured her to a secluded spot under the pretence of taking her home but strangled and abandoned her on the road. ADGC Harendra Rathore told TOI: “Her throat and vocal cords were charred. 

In a written statement, she said she somehow survived long enough to ensure her assaulters were punished. Her note was crucial in nailing the culprits.” He added, “She detailed how her two brothers-in-law threw her in to the bushes and tore her clothes. Her father later poured acid on her face and mouth, causing her to lose her voice. She demanded capital punishment for her father and brothers-in-law for their heinous acts. Police investigations revealed that the woman’s minor brother was sent by their father to buy acid. 

He is being tried in juvenile court.” Rathore said, “A case was initially registered against seven accused. One of the accused was a minor, and his case file was transferred to a juvenile court. The woman ’s husband was booked under the section of rape, but he was acquitted by the court as he was legally married to her.”