Man, His Wife Get Life Term For Daughter's Murder In 2024 In UP's Gonda

A court in Gonda has sentenced a man and his wife to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 25,000 each for murdering his daughter nearly two years ago, prosecution officials said on Wednesday.

According to District Government Counsel Basant Shukla, the incident took place during the night of June 10-11, 2024, in Tulsipur Madhavganj under the Dhanepur police station area.

The convict, Rajesh Shukla, had called the 112 emergency service and claimed that his brothers had assaulted him and his daughter. Police reached the spot and took the injured woman to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead.

The body was sent for a post-mortem examination, while evidence was collected from the crime scene with the help of a field unit and dog squad. An FIR was registered on a complaint by the victim's maternal grandfather, Brij Bihari Mishra, Shukla said.

During the investigation, Rajesh and his wife Kiran were arrested on June 12, 2024, by a joint team of Dhanepur police and the SOG-surveillance. Police subsequently filed a chargesheet against them on July 11, 2024.

According to the prosecution, Rajesh wanted his daughter Shweta to marry a man, but she opposed the proposal as he was an accused in a dowry death case.

The prosecution also alleged that Rajesh was embroiled in a dispute with his brothers over the division of their ancestral house and land, Basant Shukla said.

The victim's father and stepmother allegedly slit her throat with a knife and subsequently made a false 112 call, accusing Rajesh's brothers of the attack, the lawyer said.

After examining the evidence and statements of witnesses from both sides, District and Sessions Judge Durga Narayan Singh convicted Rajesh and Kiran of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on Tuesday, the lawyer added. 

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