HC commutes death sentence in rape-murder case

The MP High Court has turned the death sentence of a man for raping and murdering his daughter and ordered the imprisonment of at least 30 years and a fine of 20,000 rupees. The probe revealed that he was suspicious of his wife's relationship with her former husband and wanted to take revenge.

Jabalpur:The Madhya Pradesh High Court has commuted the death sentence of a man convicted for the rape and murder of his daughter to life imprisonment.

A division bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Anjuli Palo passed the order on Tuesday.

A trial court in Bhopal had on December 22, 2018, sentenced the accused Afzal Khan to death for raping and murdering his 6-year-old daughter.

When the case came up for confirmation of death sentence, the high court held that it did not fall in the "rarest of rare" category so as to warrant the capital punishment, government lawyer Som Mishra said.

The division bench, instead, sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum jail term of 30 years without remission and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him, Mishra said.

The incident had taken place on March 15, 2017.

Khan raped his daughter and murdered her by hanging her from the ceiling with a 'dupatta' before leaving for his shop.

The probe revealed that he was suspicious of his wife's relationship with her former husband and wanted to take revenge, the government counsel said.