Daughters' testimony lands father in jail for life

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 29

A Bulandshahr court this week handed down a life sentence to 48-year-old Manoj Bansal for "killing his wife over not bearing a son", a verdict that capped six years of ordeal for his two daughters whose testimonies led to the conviction and one that will strike at the root of the raging cultural preference for sons in several parts of India.

Latika and Tanya Bansal, aged 21 and 17 respectively, testified against their father in court saying he burnt their mother Anu Bansal alive on June 14, 2016 only because she had not been able to bear a son.

Days after Anu Bansal's tragic demise from 95 per cent burns in Meerut, Latika, unable to move the police system, had penned a letter in blood to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, crying for justice.

Latika detailed her mother's agony in the letter and how calls made to the police helpline 100 and local ambulance went unanswered on the fateful day in 2016.

It was only after Latika's letter went viral that the Bulandshahr police booked Manoj Bansal for murder and the trial commenced.

The accused maintained his innocence through the legal battle claiming that his wife had died by suicide and he himself suffered burns trying to save her.

"After a six-year-long legal battle, we have finally secured justice. For us, this man is a monster. My mother reared us amid great hardships...I still remember that day. We were locked in a room while our mother was set on fire. It happened in front of our eyes," Latika Bansal said in a video statement.

Anu Bansal was forced to have six abortions while trying to have a son.

The lawyer for the girls, Sanjay Sharma, hailed the two for their persistence in a trial where they were ranged against their own father and relatives.

The verdict questions the prevailing cultural preference for sons with the Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostics Techniques Act failing to curb the menace of sex selection. The health ministry's latest data show only about 71,096 diagnostic facilities have been registered nationally so far. Of the 3,158 court cases filed under the law, 617 have ended in conviction, a rate of 19.53 per cent and only 145 medical licences have been cancelled.

Overall sex ratio at birth in India remains abysmally low though it improved marginally from 919 in the National Family Health Survey (2015-16) to 929 in NFHS 5 (2019-21).

Only three states or UTs have a sex ratio at birth below 900. These are Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

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