Meet Sheela

Sheela always had big dreams. She wanted to study and become something or someone in life. She finished her schooling and then also went onto to do an undergraduate programme. Sheela fell in love with her neighbour and because she had never been in love before she was quick to trust anyone. She had lived a very comfortable, sheltered life hence she was not the best judge of character. When her family objected to their relationship, Sheela left her home with her lover. When she started living with him, she saw him in a whole new light. He was unambitious and lazy. They went through a rough and rocky patch and Sheela soon realised that he didn’t care very much. He threatened to leave her multiple times and his shaky character was showing Sheela his true colours.

With no family support, Sheela found herself in a messy situation but she stayed strong and was adamant on making it through. She stuck by her lover’s side and they soon got married and moved to Panipat in India. Life seemed a little brighter now for Sheela, she had gotten used to her husbands behaviour and started over looking it. She had a busy schedule and big dreams for the future. Sheela started doing her undergraduate and had a job on the side to pay for her education and to run her house. She had never felt this independent and had a new found spirit. Things with her husband had also finally started looking up and he had started respecting her for all the hard work she was putting into her life.

When Sheela started working she was very happy until she started receiving inappropriate advances from her boss. She overlooked his advances and dismissed him…scared that if she spoke up, she would loose her job and she couldn’t afford that. The advances carried on and soon her boss started openly confessing his love for her. Sheela was shocked and found herself in a bad situation not knowing what to do. He started calling and harassing her and that’s when Sheela decided that she had had enough. She went to work and handed in her resignation and found a job elsewhere. She thought she had gotten rid of the harassment but to her surprise, it was far from being over. The first day Sheela started working at her new job, her former boss sent his friends into Sheela’s office and they started begging Sheela to come down with them for a second. She refused multiple times and when the situation got embarrassing, Sheela decided to go downstairs. Her former boss was waiting in a car but that’s not what Sheela had agreed too. She didn’t know he was there and refused to get into the car, after creating a scene, Sheela finally decided to sit in the car only to talk to the man. She made him promise that he wouldn’t drive off anywhere. As soon as Sheela sat in the car, to her surprise, he drove off and drove her to a secluded area with no signs of human activity. She was now scared and thought this was the end of her life. Sheela started panicking and her boss kept trying to persuade her to take her old job back so that he could keep a closer eye on her. After endless arguing and him physically harming her, Sheela realised she had no way out. She couldn’t run out of the car or scream for help to save her life; she decided to accept his proposal to rejoin her job. Her former boss then drove her home and Sheela had never been more traumatized in her whole life.

10^th of November 2009-Sheelas birthday was a day she would never forget. She remembers feeling extremely low the entire day and with the sudden death of her grandmother that she was very close to, She wasn’t in the best of spirits. Sheela just had a bad feeling and hence she didn’t go to work for the next couple of days. When she returned to work on the 15^th of November she was hesitant, as she knew she would have to face her boss again. To her surprise, her day went off without a glitch in sight till about 6 o’clock. Her boss said he had some impending work to do with her and asked her to stay back as everyone else left for the day. Now Sheela was worried. She waited around to see what work he needed done and once everyone had left, he came to her and said that he no longer needed her assistance and that she was free to go for the day. Sheela was relieved and thought her bad feeling was just something she had imagined. She walked down the stairs and waited for the bus that was going to take her home when she suddenly saw a man with a handkerchief tied around his face. This wasn’t suspicious as the area that they were in was dusty, so she wasn’t alarmed. The man started approaching Sheela and that’s when she started panicking a little bit. She didn’t know why she was scared but she just was. Before she knew it, the man chucked a cup full of acid on her face and the next thing she remembers is screaming at the top of her voice. “I never knew I could scream like that. I never knew that the shrieks that were coming out of my mouth could come out of another human being. I didn’t know what hit me. I was surprised. I could feel the burning sensation but I couldn’t feel it. It was like my senses had given up on me and the shock took over. I didn’t know what happened to me and not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I had just been attacked with acid”. The people around Sheela put her in a car and rushed her to the closest hospital, which was 45 minutes away. The entire journey there, Sheela couldn’t think about the pain, she just thought about the fact that her face wouldn’t be the same anymore. By the time she reached the hospital she had lost vision in her eyes. Later on, Sheela recovered vision in one eye but unfortunately lost the other one and half of her face.

Sheelas husband left her after the attack and she moved back to live with her family for which she will be forever grateful. After everything, her parents welcomed her back with open arms and took care of her.  The People, because of whom Sheela lost one side of her face and one of her eyes are still roaming the streets…free.

It’s a scary thought, anyone could be Sheela. The law has not been successful in helping Sheela. Her fight for justice is still ongoing and the accused still exists among us as a free man.”No government or organisation came to my rescue in my time of need. No one but my family supported me.” She says. With her case still on trial Sheela is still optimistic that the law will see her side of the story and award the accused a harsh sentence for stealing her face, identity confidence and life.

What do I plan to do with the funds?

With the funds obtained, Sheela plans on rebuilding her face. The medical procedures she needs to undergo are not only complicated but costly as well. 

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