Woman who killed minor daughters gets life term

LUDHIANA: A woman, who murdered her two minor daughters due to poverty and tension, has been awarded life imprisonment by a local court.
The court of additional sessions judge Virinder Aggarwal also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on convict Manjinder Kaur. She would have to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months if she fails to pay the fine.

On May 20, 2016, Daba police had booked Manjinder of Gill colony under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC for killing her daughters — Liza Masih and Aksra — by making them consume rodenticide.

Manjinder’s husband Jagtar Masih, a truck driver, had lodged a complaint in the matter alleging that she carried out the crime as she was upset over Masih remaining out of town for most of the days.

He had a double-storey house. Masih resided with his family on the first floor, while his brother along with mother Rajia Masih lived on the ground floor.

About three days prior to the incident, Masih’s mother and brother had gone out for some work. On May 20, 2016, when he reached home at 8pm, he found nobody in the house and noticed a foul smell emanating from the house. Later, he found his two daughters lying dead on bed. When he searched for his wife, he could not find her.

The complainant said that he firmly believed that his wife had had killed his daughters. Later police found the accused admitted to the civil hospital. During trial of the case, the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed she was falsely implicated.

Additional public prosecutor S S Haidar said Manjinder had made an extra judicial confession before numbardar Bachittar Singh that she had killed her daughters due to tension and poverty. He said she also wanted the numbardar to make her surrender before the police, but when he postponed it for the next day, she jumped into a canal. Later the numbardar didn’t identify her during the course of trial due to his sympathy with the accused yet it was established that she was the woman who jumped into the canal after killing her daughters.

He added that she failed to explain where she was at the time of death of children.

Holding the accused guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence and last seen theory, as she was seen with the children, the court sentenced her to life imprisonment. The court however observed that the case didn’t fall within ambit of the rarest of rare case as the relationship between the convict and deceased was that of mother and daughters and “there was no animus between the accused and deceased.”

The court also took note that the woman herself attempted to end her life, which showed that she was not satisfied with her life. She might have killed them, realising that in her absence, both her daughters would not be taken care of, as her husband, who was a truck driver, remained out of town most of the times.