Punjab and Haryana high court acquits father, uncle of girl’s murder over inter-caste relationship
The girl, a first-year student and resident of a village under police station Jandiala Guru in Amritsar, was found dead at her house on September 12, 2012
Ten years after the father and his brother, hailing from Amritsar, were awarded the death sentence for murdering a girl over an inter-caste relationship, the Punjab and Haryana high court has acquitted both of them. The duo remained behind the bars for over 11 years.
The girl, a first-year student and resident of a village under police station Jandiala Guru in Amritsar, was found dead at her house on September 12, 2012. The police had booked the father and her uncle on allegations of murder as they were allegedly against the inter-caste relationship between the girl, a Mazbi Sikh and a Jat boy, who was also a complainant in the case.
The duo was convicted and awarded the death sentence in October 2014 as the trial court held that she was murdered by the duo due to a ‘feudal mindset’ as they were against the inter-caste relationship. The duo appealed against the order in HC. The trial court also sent the murder reference to the high court for confirmation of the punishment as the duo was awarded the death sentence.
“The trial court got swayed by the issue of honour killing without taking into consideration the fact that appellant No.1 (father) had lost his daughter but went on to hold him guilty of the offence of murder along with his brother even in the absence of any conclusive material on record. The travesty has further been compounded by the fact that the appellants have undergone 11 years, 4 months and 6 days of actual custody period before this court could effectively direct for their release,” the bench of justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Lapita Banerji observed while allowing the plea against the conviction order.
The court reasoned that the case was set up on circumstantial evidence. “There is no eye-witness to vouch for the same, and the deceased had died in her own house. The complainant being connected with the deceased was claiming to be her lover, could have faced prosecution on the fact that the deceased had committed suicide since it is the specific case of the defence that he was harassing the deceased,” the bench observed, adding that the credibility of the complainant itself needs to be examined.
The court said motive, as attributed by the prosecution, is a two-edged sword which can cut both ways, and the motive thus can also be attributed to the complainant for having falsely implicated the appellants.
“The opposition in normal circumstances would have been from the boy’s family who belonged to an upper caste, there would have been no such opposition from the lower caste family if the girl was going to be married in a higher caste which has been lost sight of by the trial court,” the bench further recorded while discussing why it was not convinced with the motive attributed for the murder.
It further added that the absence of any injury on her would go on to show that it would not be possible that the girl would not retaliate if she was being smothered and would have necessarily received bruises, which would have come out in the post-mortem. Apparently, the cause of death is on account of the poisoning, which was never investigated into at any point of time by the police, it added.