Death sentence to acid throwers

Recently, The Bangalore High Court awarded life imprisonment to an acid thrower. He had burnt to ashes the face, both eyes, nose and one ear of the victim. The punishment was a step in the right direction but I think still short of full justice.

Throwing acid is a crime worse than murder. When a person is killed, it’s a few minutes or maybe hours of agony and it’s over. Throwing acid is a life long torture. It’s like hanging between life and death. It kills the self respect, self image and everything a person could have in life.

Whether we accept or not, life is easy for a beautiful / handsome / smart looking person and equally tough for an ugly one. A person bearing a disfigured face is worst of the lot. Disfiguring the face disfigures the whole life of a person. If the attacker had a little conscience, he would have killed the person instead. Acid throwing is a sadist's weapon of choice, lesser risk of punishment, more harm to the victim.

Secondly the act of acid throwing cannot be done in hot blood, the person needs to procure the acid and plan the attack. It should be treated at par with cold blooded murder when awarding punishments.

Also, unlike other laws, a strong law for acid attacks cannot be misused by anyone. I don’t think any person in the world would be ready to go blind and burn ones face to misuse a law.