What is Acid Attack?

[Trigger Warning: The following content contains information on physical violence which some readers may find disturbing.]

An acid attack is the crime of hurting a person by throwing acid on them, administering acid ¹ to that person or doing anything with acid with the intention or knowledge that it would harm the person. An acid attack may result in injuries to a person, in any part of the body, including ² :

• Permanent or partial damage or deformity to a person
• Burns on any body parts
• Maiming, disfiguration or any form of disability of a person.

Even though the main definition of acid attack is given in the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Law Commission of India has also defined an acid attack, as a form of violence against women where the perpetrator splashes a person or object with acid in order to deface or kill them. ³

An acid attack can happen anywhere. Incidents of acid attack have frequently taken place at home, on the streets and even at work places.

1. Marelpally Venkata Sree Nagesh v State of Andhra Pradesh 2002 (1) ALD Cri 905.[↩]
2. The Scheme for Relief and Rehabilitation of Offences (by Acids) on Women and Children, 2009 National Commission for Women, accessed at http://ncwapps.nic.in/PDFFiles/Scheme_ACID_Attack.pdf[↩]
3. Proposal for the Inclusion of Acid Attacks as Specific Offences in the Indian Penal Code and a Law for Compensation for Victims of Crime, Law Commission of India No 226, 2008, accessed at https://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report226.pdf.[↩]