Gurugram The court of additional sessions judge on Thursday sentenced a man to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹15,000 for murdering his 12-year-old daughter. The man hit her with a wooden stick and a stool in an inebriated condition, and then cremated her body to destroy the evidence before an autopsy could be conducted, in 2017.
The convict, Rakesh Singh, was held guilty of the offence under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC.
The convict pleaded the court to take a lenient view while issuing the punishment, stating that he had to look after his aged mother and his son, who is studying in Class 9.
In the judgment, the court, however, observed that the convict had failed to realise that having a daughter to raise, is one of the greatest blessings on the face of the earth.
“Also, he failed to realise that father is the greatest protector and ideal of any daughter. He also caused injuries to the younger daughter, who was nine years old, and deaf and dumb. He failed to realise the irreparable damage which he was causing to the psyche of the younger daughter by killing her elder sister brutally and hitting her in such a manner,” the order stated.
In the police complaint, the Singh’s wife, Shakuntala, had said that on the night of July 15, 2017, Singh, a driver, had come to their house in Naurangpur village in Kherki Duala drunk and picked a fight with her. During the confrontation, he assaulted both the daughters with a wooden stick and a wooden patra (stool) on their heads.
{{/usCountry}}In the police complaint, the Singh’s wife, Shakuntala, had said that on the night of July 15, 2017, Singh, a driver, had come to their house in Naurangpur village in Kherki Duala drunk and picked a fight with her. During the confrontation, he assaulted both the daughters with a wooden stick and a wooden patra (stool) on their heads.
{{/usCountry}}Both the daughters sustained injuries and the elder daughter had bled to death in their courtyard. The younger daughter had sustained injuries to her back, hip, left thigh, left leg and head.
The following morning at 6.30, Singh had told his brother-in-law over the phone that a poisonous reptile had bitten his daughter, killing her. He cremated the body before the family members could reach their village. He was arrested the same day by the Kherki Daula police. The police had recovered bloodstained wooden stick and stool from the house.
In his statement, under section 313 of CrPC, the accused claimed innocence stating that his daughter had gone to answer the call of nature in the early morning, when a poisonous insect had bitten her. He had further stated that the case was falsely planted by his wife and her family to get land and money transferred in her name.
After hearing the arguments, the court ruled that the prosecution had proved the charges against the accused beyond reasonable doubt by proving the date, time and manner of occurrence and connected the same with the identity of the accused and that he committed offences of culpable homicide amounting to murder, simple hurt and destroying of evidence.