Woman gets life term for killing daughter

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 12

A local court has sentenced a 41-year-old woman to life imprisonment for murdering her two-and-a-half year-old daughter in 2016. The convict, Manju Devi, was held guilty under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. She has also been told to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 by the court.

As per the police, in April 2016, a mutilated body was found dumped in a gunny bag in the Industrial Area, Phase II, here. The girl, who was found partially eaten by dogs, was found in a sack. The victim was identified as Pihu of Sarangpur village.

Manju had been arrested by the police and latter said she killed her daughter at home and hired a three- wheeler to dump her body in the Industrial Area. The police claimed that she killed her daughter as she was finding it hard to run her house and raise her four children. She banged her head against the wall and then strangled her to ensure that she was dead.

During the interrogation, she revealed that she remained in depression as she had two daughters and was always under tension over expenses of their studies and their future. Crime branch officials had recovered a sack from her residence in Sarangpur in which the victim’s body was packed before dumping. Following that the crime branch officials started questioning her other children who confirmed that her mother had thrashed her at her residence. Father of the victim Rameshwar Singh (45), who hails from Bihar, works as a gardener.

While narrating the story, Rameshwar claimed that the police falsely implicated his wife in the case. He claimed that the police have not been able to find his daughter’s body till date and had presented some other body in the case.

“We are illiterate and the police framed us,” said Rameshwar, who was also the complainant in the case and had reported that his daughter was missing. However, Rameshwar’s breath smelled of alcohol and he was seen consuming tobacco outside the court room.

He said he and his family had shifted to Sarangpur from Kharar only a day before the incident. On the day, while he was at his workplace, Markfed in Sector 35, his wife had gone to a bank in Kharar to withdraw money. Their four children were at home and when Manju returned, their youngest daughter was found missing.