In an incident of honour killing, the Allahabad High Court recently upheld the life sentence of a couple who murdered their minor daughter and tenant in 2014 after finding she was pregnant with his child [Smt. Seema Gupta v State of UP]

A Division Bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Vinai Kumar Dwivedi held that it was case of death by strangulation and not a case of suicide as claimed by the accused persons.

The Court also found that victim Pradeep Kumar and the 15-year-old girl were murdered soon after the discovery of her pregnancy.

“The appellants have not come up with an explanation about the twin murders within the confines of their premises, a fact exclusively within their knowledge and failed to discharge their burden in this regard under Section 106 of the Evidence Act,” the Court ruled.

In the case dating back to August 20, 2014, 28-year-old Kumar, a teacher, was a tenant with the accused Mukesh Gupta and his wife Seema Gupta.

It was alleged that they had killed their daughter and Kumar on account of their “illicit relations”. The State had called it a case of “honour killing”.

They were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2020, leading to the appeal before the High Court.

After considering the evidence, the High Court noted that it was established that the unmarried daughter of the accused was pregnant. The Court also found that Guptas’ were certain that Kumar had been in a relationship with their daughter.

Observing that this discovery had come as a shock to the parents, the Court said there was a clear motive to “undertake the evil deed.”

It added that the victim girl’s parents represent the ordinary and average cross-section of the Indian society, where extreme reactions to the situation are commonplace

“We must take judicial notice of the fact that since times of yore until contemporary ones, a daughter's pregnancy outside wedlock for an average Indian is a nightmare. It always invites uncontrollable reactions from parents, mostly violent, either for themselves or the daughter or the wrongdoer or both of them. The embarrassment would be there generally amongst any class of persons, but those refined by education might react in a different way, where notwithstanding disapproval, rapprochement etc., violence may or may not be there. Some might work towards avoiding the embarrassment devising some ways and means, legal or illegal,” the Bench said.

The Court also found that before the murders, Kumar’s brother had received a call from Mukesh Gupta informing him about the pregnancy of his unmarried daughter. It noted that the phone with which the call was made was later recovered by the police from Gupta’s brother-in-law. 

“That Pradeep and ‘X’ died sometime between the midnight of 19.08.2014 and the morning hours of 20.08.2014, certainly before 11.00 a.m. on 20.08.2014 and the dead bodies of Pradeep and ‘X’ were found in a room within the appellants' premises,” it added.

Thus, the Court concluded that there was a complete and unbroken chain, consistent with the guilt of the accused.

“We are, therefore, of opinion that the appellants have been rightfully convicted by the learned Trial Judge of the offence punishable under Section 302/34 IPC. The minimum permissible sentence has been awarded, which, in our opinion, is condign,” the Court ruled.

Advocate Shweta Singh Rana argued for the accused.

[Read Judgment]