Murder, rape of minor daughter: HC commutes Amritsar man’s death sentence to life term

The Punjab and Haryana high court has commuted the death sentence awarded to an Amritsar man to jail for life in the murder and rape case of his minor daughter.

“While there is no doubt about the brutal and heinous nature of the crime committed by the accused who is none other than the father of the deceased, the fact remains that he has no criminal antecedents, hails from a poor socio-economic background and his conduct inside the jail has been satisfactory. Therefore, the instant case cannot be said to be falling in the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’ in which there is no alternative but to impose the death sentence,” the bench of justice Gurvinder Singh and justice JS Bedi said while answering the murder reference sent by the trial court, Amritsar in 2024. The death penalty can be awarded by a trial court but can’t be executed unless confirmed by the high court.

The convict, 35, committed the crime during the intervening night of January 4 and 5, 2020. He was booked under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and 6 of the POCSO Act on January 5 on the complaint of his wife.

The victim, a six-year-old was the eldest among three siblings. Owing to some dispute, his wife had been living at her parental house along with her children. The convict routinely took the victim along with him and dropped her back. On January 4, he again brought her along with him forcibly but did not bring her back in the evening.

That night, he raped and murdered her and then hung the body on a tree on the bank of a canal. Under the influence of drugs, he kept on roaming around. In the morning, he informed his wife about his act and dared her to take action against him.

On the complaint of his wife, a case was registered on January 5, 2020, at the Khilchian police station under Baba Bakala Sahib tehsil. The medical report had established that the victim had been raped. He was awarded the death penalty by the trial court on August 29, 2024. He himself was also in appeal against the judgment filed in December 2024.

The high court said that it stood established beyond doubt that the accused was seen in the company of the deceased having taken her from her mother the previous evening and the burden lay on him to explain how she came to be raped and murdered. Medical evidence also suggested that she was raped.

While commuting his death sentence, the court awarded imprisonment for life which, it said, “would mean imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life without the application of the provisions of premature release/remission.”