Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Sonali Mukherjee- disfigured for life


This article was first carried here.

Sonali with her father.
It was not difficult to recognise Sonali Mukherjee among the crowd in Dilli Haat as she walked towards this correspondent, guided by a fragile, bespectacled man, her father, Chandi Das Mukherjee. Her face was covered with a red dupatta and she was wearing sunglasses that she bought from a local shop.

"The sunglasses cover my eyes, while the duppata hides my burn scars and the ears," she says.

She was 17 years old when three men threw acid at her on the night of 22 April 2003. "They used to pass lewd comments at me. When I protested they became angry, and one night when I was sleeping, they poured acid on me."

She suffered more than 70% burn injuries, lost both her eyes and can only hear from one ear. Her whole face is disfigured beyond recognition.

Ever since the tragedy, the father-daughter duo have spent most of the last nine years in either seeing doctors or visiting political leaders. Both have given them hope, but it's only the doctors who seem to have fulfilled their promise. "The doctors are doing whatever they can, but no one else is helping me," says Sonali.

She says that after nine years of trying to get financial help for treatment, she now wants mercy killing. "I have gone through 22 surgeries and have already spent Rs 8 lakh. My father, who worked as a watchman, sold off the land and jewellery we had. My mother has lost her mental balance. Now the whole burden has become unbearable."

Sonali rues the false commitments of help given by political leaders from her state, Jharkhand.

However, according to her father, some help is finally trickling in. "Famous lawyer Ram Jethmalani called me and gave Rs 1.49 lakh. Small donations are also coming in. But I need Rs 15 lakh for the surgery. Please publish my account number so that your readers can help us."

Chandi Das Mukherjee appears dejected and perpetually lost. "I have lost faith in everything. What was my daughter's fault? Those who are responsible for her condition are enjoying a normal life. They just spent a little more than three years in prison before they were granted bail," he said.

At the time of the incident, Sonali was an undergraduate student of sociology at a Dhanbad college. Just few months before the incident, she received an award from the hands of the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for being the best NCC cadet. But everything changed in a matter of minutes.

The three accused, Kapas Mitra, Sanjay Paswan and Brahmdev Hazra, were from a neighbouring village. In 2007, Paswan and Hazra were granted bail. While the third accused, Mitra, was shown to be a minor and hence was released much earlier.

According to Chandi Das, money was used at every stage of the case. "Justice was bought and sold. My own lawyer, who was my relative, took money from the accused and weakened our case."

Last week, the Mukherjees met Union Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, who promised them assistance. They have not heard anything from her since then.

Bank account details of Chandi Das Mukherjee:
0612000103217694
Punjab National Bank
Nauroji Nagar Branch,
IFSC code: PUNB006120
New Delhi

26 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

please add another zero in IFSC code of the bank. it is PUNB0061200

Anonymous said...

its a shame that the criminals are still roaming free, what is our indian judiciary and authorities doing. We claim that ours is a democratic country, but this case only shows that our system is lacking somewhere in doing justice. its a shame.

Anonymous said...

does pension and job , will help to cure that pain which she had suffered in 9 years,,,,, i think no as nothing can compensate it.... if our constitution have no law and order for these kind of criminals then our youth must do discard of this constitution......... same on our law and order,,..... our law must give punishment to those guys with acid as proper judgement.... i think this is the only punishment for those..............

anonymous said...

It's a shame that in a country like India where respecting & protecting women is supposed to be a part of culture a 17 year old girl through no fault of hers was made to suffer so much. if one of the accused was a minor than so was the victim. why is our judiciary giving justice to the perpetrators and not the victim? is this what women should expect in 21st century India? is sonali ever going to get justice or will her case get buried inspite of public awareness? are we really living in a democratic country?

Anonymous said...

Indian judiciary system is bullshitt.... lakhs of cases like this... are still waiting for justice from several years.... those 3 culprits should be hanged till death.... I wish all the ministers ..n judiciary can realize the meaning of the very first line of constitution... OF THE PEOPLE...FOR THE PEOPLE....BY THE PEOPLE....n could actually bring dat into existence...after 65 years of being ...SO CALLED DEMOCRATIC......

Anonymous said...

big shame on indian law and judiciary and all the politicians...
renew these laws politicians or law makers....
Kab tak ye criminals aise ghumte rhenge.

Anonymous said...

Really its very disgusting thing that govt. has become deaf. Has anyone realized how much pain and agony this girl is going through. If this has happened with one of us then how would we have felt. I feel very sad for this. As a human being I can do very little as I have my own limitations but govt. has more power and money. Then why cant it render a help to that girl.

Prerna said...

Shame on all three guys. How can they do this.I dont know how the system works or it will do something for helpless girl or not. But I will pray to god please punish all these three guys. Make them realize what they have done. And now they are enjoying their life. They should be compelled to pay all cost.

anupriya said...

please note that the a/c number is 0612000103217964

Anonymous said...

I think that this is the most horrific act commited ever.The system should grant the most cruel punishment to the accused.

Illusion said...

Cant we have a simple law of culprit bearing the medical expenses? We have been taught all our life that we pay for our actions!! Just few yrs in prison will not punish them enough! They should be the one selling their properties and bearing all the expenses then only ppl will learn n will think hundred times before doing such a heinous crime. Nowadays criminals have no fear coz bail is the ans of all the crimes. There should be severe punishment plus they should bear all the medical expenses. This is what we do in the case of accidents then why not this? And why cant govt spend from its budgets, they have all the money for Trips, gifts, events but not for a poor family like her.

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Anonymous said...

I want to donate some money.. But I am not sure if the account is a real one...How would I know? Can someone tell me?

anupriya said...

0612000103217964 this is the acount number...u can confirm it from sonali herself,or her dad will pick up the phone ...the phone number is available on the net

amar said...

i think hang up till death is not the sufficiant sol in the case. the acid should be put on their face too so that they got that pain for life time.
other bad people has got encouragemet to do more crime by seeing the decison took by court.
....my great india.....
no one to ask the judge how they got bail after such a crime. they ruind the whole family of sonali

Anonymous said...

ye criminals tab tak azad hai jab tak ye ministers and other concerned persons ko chadawa(paisa) khilate rahenge.
india hai bhai.
hak mangne se nahi milta.

Anonymous said...

why the three culprits are under the cutain.
media should publish their photos to the public. aise ghinone mujrimo ko to acid ke tub k under daal dena chahiye. till death.

Anonymous said...

fuck u Indian police...

Anonymous said...

what the hell police and politicians are doing....they have so much black money can't they give some money to her........fuck them all.......the people should come together and fight for her justice........so that the person who have done this should get punished and this thing should not get repeated........FOR ALL THIS THE PEOPLE OF INDIA HAVE TO UNITE TOGETHER FOR HER JUSTICE......DON'T DEPEND ON OTHER'S....THE PEOPLE ONLY HAVE TO COME FORWARD TO HELP HER.........PLEASE HELP HER

Anonymous said...

First of all govt. Should take initiative for proper treatment of sonali in foreign countries and secondly all the accused persons should be hanged till death

Anonymous said...

Shonali should get justice wht is our goverment doing the three must be encountered

Anonymous said...

Justice has been denied for shonali
the three criminals are roaming outside!!! they must get a severe punishment.

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