Sentenced to death for honour killing, Hisar man set free by HC

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 6

Less than six months after Ashok, a resident of Hisar district, was sentenced to death in an honour killing case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted him.

The matter was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill for the confirmation of death sentence pronounced in December last year for poisoning his sister over an inter-caste marriage. 

Ashok had filed an appeal.

The prosecution contended that Ashok was unhappy with his sister’s marriage to Rohtash. Ashok was charged with administering poison to his sister, resulting in her death. The prosecution had claimed that her body was cremated hurriedly.

Justice Sharma said the case record indicated that the police visited the place of occurrence and collected the residue of vomit. Ash and burnt bones were also lifted from the cremation ground before being sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory. 

Poison did not emerge as the cause of death. 

In any case, the marriage was solemnised in August 2015 and the date of incident was February 13, 2017.

The deceased’s cousin, Krishan Kumar, had admitted that there was no resentment in the family. The polygraph test of the parents of the accused showed that the answers given by them were not deceptive.

Justice Sharma asserted that Rohtash, on whose insistence an FIR  was registered, had not supported the prosecution case. “The chain of circumstances is not complete. The prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt,” the Bench ruled, while setting Ashok free. 

Key loopholes

• Contrary to charge, forensic lab report said poisoning was not the cause of death
• Victim’s cousin testified there was no resentment in family
• The accused’s parents did not give deceptive answers in the polygraph test