Uttar Pradesh: Acid attack, gangrape victim doesn't want to live

Lucknow: After going through the harrowing experience of gang rape and five acid attacks, she still survives. Though, she says, she had lost the will to live.

Five days after she was forced to drink acid on a train while returning to Lucknow from her home in Rae Bareli, the woman suffered burns in her mouth, jaw and throat. Her speech is incoherent but her husband understands and conveys what she says.

Lying on a hospital bed, with security guards outside, the 46-year-old woman, says “I don’t want to live. I cannot take it anymore. Ab saha nahin jata. I want justice but have no hopes left.”

The woman belongs to the Pasi community (dalit) and her attackers are from the Thakur community. She says that she was picked up and gang raped in 2008 because she refused to part with the land that the attackers wanted. “They were arrested and let off. To teach me a lesson, they attacked me with acid in 2011, twice in 2012 and again in 2013. My whole body has burn marks,” she says in between sobs.

The woman, who now works in Sheroes Hangout — a café run by acid attack survivors in Lucknow — had gone to her home in Rae Bareli to celebrate Holi, and was returning by train when she was attacked again. “Guddu Singh and his brother Bhondu Singh were on the train.  They caught me when I was getting down at a Lucknow outer stoppage. Before I could realise, one of them caught my face opened my mouth and poured acid. I lay screaming for help but passengers walked away.