Two Daughters breathed a sign of relief after their father was awarded life imprisonment by a local court six years after he set his wife on fire for not bearing a son on Friday.
Manoj Bansal, a resident of Kothiyat locality of the city area in UP had burnt Anu, his wife, alive for not bearing a son, Advocate Sanjay Sharma said. Anu’s daughters, Latika and Tanya, saw their mother burning alive in front of them. The two filed a complaint against their father and fought a six-year-long fight to get justice for their mother.
“Hearing the case on Wednesday, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge sentenced Manoj Bansal to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife,” Sharma said. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on Bansal. Manoj had married Anu in 2000. After their marriage, Anu gave birth to a girl, Latika, and a few years later Tanya was born. After the birth of two daughters, Manoj and his family members started harassing Anu for not giving them a son, Sharma said . In their testimony, the two sisters had alleged that their father Manoj set their mother on fire by pouring on her kerosene oil in front of their eyes on June 14, 2016 and fled from there.
Anu was admitted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital in a critical condition, where she succumbed on June 20. Latika was 15 and Tanya was 11 years old when the incident happened. Manoj was booked for murder in Kotwali Nagar Police Station. Latika wrote a letter with her blood to the then Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav, alleging that she and her sister were being threatened by their relatives and pleaded for justice. The advocate said that following the letter, Akhilesh met the two girls and also their maternal uncle and maternal grandmother. The CM heard their ordeal and assured them that the accused would be punished,
Talking to the media, Tanya and Latika Bansal, now 18 and 20, say they are relieved that their six-year legal battle ended in punishment for their father.
“My mother was murdered by my father only because she did not give birth to a son. My mother raised us with so much difficulty and that man burnt her alive. For us he is just a demon. After a 6-year fight, his conviction is a relief to us . My sister and I were locked in a room and we were eyewitnesses to how our father and others burnt my mother,” Latika said in a video statement.
(With inputs from agencies)
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