A 28-year-old Dalit woman who was subjected to acid attack by four men in the remote Mogallur village in Prakasam district four years ago is still knocking on the doors of courts at different levels including the Supreme Court.
She was given a permanent job as Junior Assistant in the Revenue Department, thanks to the intervention of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu after the A.P. Dalit Mahasabha Chirala unit general secretary N. Babu Rao took up her cause. But she wants more than a job.
“I want justice,” said P. Asha Jyothi after she received her appointment order from Prakasam District Collector Sujatha Sharma.
Daughter of a postman, Asha Jyothi was a contract physical education teacher in the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Veligandla. After her father passed away, her mother Vijayamma was given the job of a postwoman.
On her daily journey to her college and back, four men began sexually harassing Asha Jyoti. She put up with it. Then her marriage was fixed, and her piqued tormentors decided to go a step ahead. On September 6, 2011, they threw acid on her.
Treated in Chennai
Badly burnt, she was referred to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital in Chennai, where doctors took it as a medical challenge to save her. “I returned from the jaws of death after battling for life for several months,” says Asha Jyothi.
Bouts of depression
In the years since her ordeal, the woman experienced severe bouts of depression and needed treatment by a psychotherapist. The scars remain, however.
She has been seeking justice for 45 months. Dissatisfied with the probe conducted by the local police, she moved first the Andhra Pradesh High Court and then the Supreme Court. She wants a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The courts, however, turned down her plea on grounds that it was the State Government which should recommend a CBI probe to the Centre and asked her to approach the district-level court dealing with SC/ST atrocities cases.
Vexed with frequent adjournments at the instance of the defence counsel, the woman wants the State government to ensure justice for her.
Even the job came to her after a lot of trouble. Asha Jyothi was forced to run from pillar to post before getting a permanent government job as rules relating to acid attack cases made it difficult.
