INDIA: ODISHA COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR KILLING WIFE FOR GIVING BIRTH TO SECOND GIRL CHILD

August 6, 2024: A court in Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar on August 1, 2024 sentenced a man to death for repeatedly stabbing his wife to death and attempting to murder his six-year-old daughter by slitting her throat two years ago.
On June 9, 2022, the convict, 46-year-old Sanjeet Dash, stabbed his wife Saraswati, who was a head nurse at a private hospital, 33 times at their residence in Ghatikia area of Bhubaneswar just a few days after she gave birth to their second daughter, according to the prosecution.
He also slit the throat of his first daughter, who was six years old, but she survived. He was arrested the next day and a charge-sheet was filed in October, 2022.
The motive behind the killing of his wife is the birth of the second girl child and that was the reason for which the accused attempted to commit the murder of his first daughter as well, the court said.
Imposing the death penalty, therefore, for such "rarest of the rare crime" would serve as a deterrent to others who might contemplate similar heinous acts, it said.
The court has also awarded life imprisonment to Dash. Both sentences will run concurrently, subject to modification, commutation, remission or pardon granted to the convict.
(Source: PTI, 02/08/2024)