1 of 3. Sonali Mukherjee (L), 27, holds the hand of her father Chandi Das Mukherjee inside a room temporarily offered by a Sikh temple in New Delhi July 22, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Ahmad Masood
Nine years on, Sonali Mukherjee, 27, is appealing to the government for medical support for skin reconstructive surgery as well as tougher penalties on her three assailants, who were released on bail after only three years in prison.
Either that, she says, or authorities should give her the right to kill herself. Euthanasia is illegal in India.
"For the last nine years, I am suffering ... living without hope, without future. If I don't have justice or my health, my only way out is to die," she says, sitting on a bed in a sparsely furnished room above a Sikh temple in south Delhi.
"I don't want to live half a life, with half a face."
Sonali's desperate plea highlights the heinous crime of throwing acid on women in India, the lack of support for victims, and lax laws which have allowed attackers to get away with what activists say is the equivalent of murder.
A court handed down nine-year jail terms to each of her attackers. But within three years, the men were out on bail. Her appeal against their release has yielded little results, says Sonali, and she continues to worry about her safety.
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