4-year-old's testimony nails father, grandmom for mother's murder

ALIGARH: An Aligarh court awarded life term to three of a family and two years in jail to one for burning alive a 23-year-old woman in 2015 over dowry. It was her four-year-old son (now 11) who testified against his father and others.
Soon after the crime, he had recorded a statement before police officers blaming his father, grandmother, uncle and grandfather's brother for the murder.
During the long trial - the boy was nine years old when in 2020 he was first called in to testify against his kin in court - the child stood his ground against the accused, eventually leading to their conviction. The court pronounced the sentence on Friday, said additional district government counsel (ADGC) Amar Singh Tomar on Saturday.
Nathu Singh, father of the woman, in his police complaint had then said that his daughter Sadhna got married to Ashok Singh, a resident of Aligarh, in 2005. Soon after marriage, her husband and in-laws started harassing her for dowry and demanded a motorbike and Rs 1 lakh in cash. Singh had then claimed that his daughter was burnt alive by the accused after they poured kerosene on her in April 2015 when she was unable to fulfil their demands. She later died in hospital. In her dying declaration to police, she said her husband and his family burnt her alive because of dowry.
Following Nathu Singh's complaint, police booked her husband, father-in-law Munnalal Singh, mother-in-law Savitri, brother-in-law Naveen and Munnalal's brother Haripal under Sections 302 (murder) of IPC and 498A of the Dowry Act. Munnalal died during the trial.
Based on evidence and testimony of the child, the court convicted the woman's husband, her mother-in-law, and Haripal, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them. An additional fine of Rs 5,000 each was slapped on Ashok and Savitri.
Ashok's brother Naveen was found guilty of siding with his family while demanding dowry and was awarded 2 years in jail. ADGC Singh said, "The boy told the court that his father had burnt his mother after pouring kerosene on her while the others watched. He never changed his version or came under pressure."