Delhi HC grants life term to a man for killing live-in partner's daughter

A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for beating to death his live-in partner's three-year-old daughter with a rolling pin as the woman was not agreeing to marry him.

The court said it was a pre-meditated crime as the man had a motive to commit the offence.

Additional Sessions Judge Lalit Kumar convicted Narej Sheikh for the offence of murder under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It said that he had beaten the child with an intention to kill her because her mother, with whom he was in a live-in relationship, was not agreeing to marry him.

"Since the child was given beatings by the accused (Sheikh) and he was very well aware of the tender age of the child, now it can be said there was premeditation in the commission of a crime, even accused had the motive to commit an offence against the deceased. It is clear that the accused had the intention to kill the deceased," the court said.

The court said the victim's mother was entitled to compensation under Delhi Government Compensation Scheme as she was not living with her husband and referred it to Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for consideration. It also asked DLSA to release at least minimum compensation prescribed to the victim of murder case immediately.

The court further said that Sheikh had the knowledge that the injury inflicted by him were sufficient to cause death.

Besides the jail term, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the man.

The court relied on the testimony of the victim's nine-year-old brother who deposed that on the day of the incident, in 2016, Sheikh had asked him to buy oil for cooking.

When the minor boy came back, he saw his father beating his sister with a 'belan' (rolling pin) and had also caught her my legs and hit her against the ground, it noted.

The boy came outside and raised an alarm due to which neighbours collected at the spot and caught hold of the accused. He was beaten up by the neighbours who handed him over to the police.

When they took the child to the hospital, she was declared "brought dead" by the doctors.

As per the doctors, the cause of death was a shock as a result of injuries to head, chest and abdomen produced by blunt force impact.