Acid attacks in India, like Bangladesh, have a gendered aspect to them: analyses of news reports revealed at least 72% of reported attacks  included at least one female victim. However, unlike Bangladesh, India's incidence rate of chemical assault has been increasing in the past decade, with a high 27 reported cases in 2010. Altogether, from January 2002 to October 2010, 153 cases of acid assault were reported in Indian print media while 174 judicial cases were reported for the year of 2000.
The motivation behind acid attacks in India mirrors those in Bangladesh: a study of Indian news reports from January 2002 to October 2010 uncovered that victims rejection of sex or marriage proposals motivated attacks in 35% of the 110 news stories providing a motive for the attack. Acid attacks have also been reported among religious minorities or Muslim women as a form of retaliation or qisas. Notable cases are Sonali Mukherjee in 2003 and Laxmi Agarwal in 2005, whose experience on the ban of acid sales was portrayed in the Bollywood film Chhapaak'.
Police in India were also accused of using acid on individuals, particularly on their eyes, causing blindness to the victims. A well known such case is the Bhagalpur blindings, where police blinded 31 individuals under trial (or convicted criminals, according to some versions) by pouring acid into their eyes. The incident was widely discussed, debated and acutely criticized by several human rights organizations. The Bhagalpur blinding case had made criminal jurisprudence history by becoming the first in which the Indian Supreme Court ordered compensation for violation of basic human rights.