BAREILLY: A Pocso court in Bareilly sentenced a man to life in jail for repeatedly raping his minor daughter and later murdering both her and his wife in 2018. His 16-year-old son’s statement played a crucial role in nailing him in the case.
While delivering the judgment on Friday, the court stated: “A man under whose guardianship his own wife and daughter are not safe, how can anyone else in society feel safe living with him? The accused not only killed humanity, but also killed trust and relationships and doesn’t deserve any mercy.”
The accused (now 45) — a dairy owner at a village in Bareilly district — used to live with his wife (38), daughter (14) and two sons (16 and 10). His daughter and wife went missing in Oct 2018, and their “skeletal remains” were found in Jan 2019. The bodies were identified through their clothes and jewellery.
Police became suspicious after they found that no missing complaint was filed by the husband. Further investigation by then-SP Abhinandan Singh revealed that the man used to rape his own daughter, and when his wife came to know of it, she wanted to lodge an FIR against her husband. To silence her, he killed her along with the 14-year-old child, police said.
ADGC Praveen Saxena told TOI on Saturday: “The man used to write obscene letters to his teenage daughter and then sexually abuse her. He tried to trick the court by saying that he was illiterate and didn’t know how to write. But the prosecution managed to get samples of his handwriting and it was sent to a forensic science lab. The FSL report found that the letters were his, and it acted as evidence against him.”
The ADGC added: “His elder son also told the court that he saw his father doing ‘wrong things’ to his sister on Oct 15, 2018. He reported it to his mother, who immediately slapped his dad, but then, they all were beaten with an iron rod by the accused…”
After considering all the evidence, the court of additional district and sessions judge Narendra Prakash pronounced the accused guilty under sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 302 (murder), 376 (rape) of IPC along with the Pocso Act and imposed a fine of Rs 28,000 on him.
Assistant prosecution officer Aparna Gaur said, “We demanded capital punishment as the accused committed a heinous crime, which comes under the rarest of the rare cases. We’ll discuss this matter in our committee meeting and might appeal for enhancement of the conviction in a higher court.”
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
