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Parents, aunt awarded life for murder of 10-year-old girl
The minor girl was murdered and buried in her own house by her father Ravi Babu Sharma, stepmother Ritu and aunt Radha Devi on August 17, 2020 .
In the gruesome murder case of a 10-year-old girl, a Bareilly court awarded life imprisonment to her parents and one of her aunts, an additional district government counsel (ADGC) said.
The minor girl was murdered and buried in her own house by her father Ravi Babu Sharma, stepmother Ritu and aunt Radha Devi on August 17, 2020 .
The sentences were announced by the court of additional district and sessions judge Arvind Kumar Yadav, which also imposed a fine of ₹90,000 on each of the three convicts.
According to ADGC Sachin Kumar Jaiswal, the crime came to light when Radha Devi’s 17-year-old son Suraj Sharma told police that he witnessed the trio digging a pit to bury her cousin three days after the incident.
When Suraj questioned them, Ravi Babu told him that Kajal had died accidentally after falling from the bed. Suraj, who was living with Ravi Babu at the time, not only filed the police complaint but also became a key witness in the trial and testified against his mother and the couple.
Following Suraj’s statement, the police recovered Kajal’s body. “A postmortem report revealed that Kajal’s wrist bone was broken in two places and that there were eight wound marks on her body, contradicting the family’s claims of an accidental death,” said Jaiswal.
During the trial, the prosecution presented seven witnesses, with Suraj’s testimony playing a pivotal role. Based on the evidence and witness accounts, the court found the accused guilty.
In delivering the verdict, the judge referenced the Nupur Talwar case, wherein the Supreme Court noted that in cases of circumstantial evidence, establishing a motive was not always necessary if all evidence formed a consistent and logical chain. The court concluded that the evidence in Kajal’s murder firmly established the guilt of the accused, the ADGC said.
