NEW DELHI (BN24) —An Indian man has been sentenced to death for murdering his wife by setting her on fire, a brutal crime driven by prejudice against her dark skin tone, in a case that has reignited national conversations around colourism and gender-based violence.
The sentencing was delivered over the weekend by a court in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, nearly eight years after the horrific attack on the woman, Lakshmi, took place on June 24, 2017. According to court documents reviewed by the BBC, Lakshmi’s husband, identified as Kishandas, doused her with a corrosive liquid and set her ablaze using an incense stick, after years of verbal abuse related to her complexion.
Lakshmi, who had married Kishandas in 2016, reportedly endured ongoing humiliation and body-shaming for being dark-skinned. She told investigators before succumbing to her injuries that her husband regularly called her “kali,” a derogatory term referring to her skin color, and made repeated derogatory comments about her appearance.
On the night of the attack, Kishandas arrived home with a plastic bottle containing a brown liquid, which he claimed was a skin-lightening treatment. After applying it to her skin, Lakshmi reportedly complained about the sharp, acidic odor—at which point he ignited her body. As she burned, Kishandas poured the rest of the substance over her and fled the scene. Her family rushed her to the hospital, but she died from her injuries soon afterward.
In a sharply worded judgment, Additional Sessions Judge Rahul Choudhary described the act as not merely murder, but “a crime against humanity.” He characterized Kishandas’s actions as displaying “excessive cruelty,” stating that the case qualified as the “rarest of the rare,” a legal standard in India that justifies capital punishment.
“It will not be an exaggeration to say that this heart-rending brutal crime was not just against Lakshmi, but against humanity,” Judge Choudhary said in court. “It shocks the conscience of humanity, which cannot even be imagined in a healthy and civilised society.”
The prosecution hailed the verdict as a landmark moment in the fight against domestic violence and gender-based discrimination. “A young woman in her early 20s was brutally murdered,” the public prosecutor told reporters. “She was someone’s daughter, someone’s sister. If we don’t protect our daughters, who will?”
The case has drawn renewed attention to the deeply ingrained issue of colourism in Indian society, where lighter skin is often unfairly associated with beauty and social status. Despite decades of activism and growing public awareness, dark-skinned women in India continue to face discrimination in marriage, media portrayals, and everyday life.
Activists argue that until societal attitudes shift and accountability is consistently enforced, such acts of violence will continue to occur.
Lakshmi’s death is now being seen as both a tragedy and a rallying point for those pushing to end violence against women and dismantle toxic beauty standards in India. As the country grapples with this deeply rooted prejudice, the court’s ruling is being viewed not just as a punishment for a horrific crime, but as a statement against the normalization of colourism.
