A 44-year-old man has been awarded life imprisonment by a Delhi court for murdering his live-in partner of 10 years as she was unable to conceive.
The court noted that convict Rajesh was “obsessed” with having a child, and when the victim Manju was unable to conceive, he believed that she was doing so deliberately.
“It is the convict himself who was a hostage of his own belief and there cannot be an excuse or justification for this act of violence on a helpless woman,” said additional sessions judge Kamini Lau.
“The facts as they have unfolded sadden me immensely, a tragic end to a love relationship. The case in hand certainly does not fall within the category of rarest of rare or least even in category of rare case. So convict Rajesh is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life and fine of Rs 10,000 for the offence under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC,” the judge said.
The court directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to take action against head constable Giri Raj as he did not pay attention to Manju’s complaint that Rajesh used to beat her.
According to the prosecution, Rajesh and Manju were living at a rented accommodation in Sultanpuri here as live-in partners.
They were together for the past 10 years, and some differences cropped up as Manju could not conceive.
Fight over child
Rajesh wanted to have a child, but Manju was unable to conceive and he felt that this was deliberate on her part.
On August 28 last year, a quarrel took place between the couple and Rajesh killed Manju by inflicting eight injuries on her vital parts with a kitchen knife.
On hearing the victim’s cries, neighbours rushed towards their house where Rajesh told them that he had killed Manju, police said, adding that he did not run away from the spot.
In his disclosure statement before police, Rajesh had said he murdered Manju as he used to insist that they have a child, but she was not ready for it.
The court noted that due to his obsession Rajesh became violent and had beaten the victim on many occasions and even the neighbours were aware of their dispute.
She had also made a complaint to police regarding the torture and harassment done by Rajesh, but no action was taken.
“Most tragically, her pleas fell on deaf ears and were never taken seriously even by police and head constable Giri Raj to whom her complaint was marked, conveniently slept over it on the ground that it was a dispute between a husband and wife,” said Lau.
