Honour killing case: SC cuts death to life term

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Wednesday awarded 20-year jail term without remission to a man for strangulating his nine-month pregnant daughter to death for marrying a lower caste person against his wish in 2013 and commuted the death sentence given by trial court and Bombay HC , reports Amit Anand Choudhary.

A bench of Justices Gavai, Aravind Kumar and Viswanathan convicted him for the offence but granted him life saying the case did come in rarest of rare category. Interestingly it was his wife and mother of his daughter whose testimony proved to be decisive as she deposed that her husband was angry with deceased as she married out of their caste.

The top court took a sympathetic view after noting the satisfactory conduct of the convict in jail. It said the nature of crime should not be only reason to award death sentence.