Woman gets 10-yr jail for burning granddaughter’s private parts

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 21

Additional District and Sessions Judge Praveen Kumar in Sirsa on Saturday sentenced a woman to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for burning the private parts of her four-year-old granddaughter at Maujukhera village in that district in July last year in desire of a grandson.

He also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the 55-year-old grandmother Kamla. She would have to undergo further imprisonment of one month if she fails to pay the fine.

Earlier the court had held the woman guilty of offences under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC and Section 75/76 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 on April 19 and adjourned the case for judgment for Saturday.

The shocking incident had occurred on July 9 last year but it came to light eight days later on July 17 when Sirsa District Child Protection Committee officials received a tip-off about it. They had found the girl in a miserable condition, tied to a ‘charpoy’ with burn injuries on her private parts.

The girl’s mother told a worker of the District Child Protection Committee that her mother-in-law burnt the child’s private parts with a hot tong and also threw hot tea on the parts because she was upset at the birth of three daughters to her. The four-year-old victim was second of her three daughters.

The girl was admitted to the Civil Hospital in Sirsa in an unconscious condition and in her statement given to the court under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code two day later, she had narrated her grandmother’s deeds.

When it came to evidences in the court, the girl’s mother turned hostile and her husband, too, deposed in favour of his accused mother. The court, however, believed the witnesses of members of the District Child Protection Committee and convicted the woman within 10 months of the commission of the crime.

She started crying and begged for pardon when the judgment was being delivered but the judge said that she (Kamla) does not deserve sympathy due to the crime she had committed.