Ikram Khan tried to pin the murder on village sarpanch.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A Haryana man who murdered his seven-year-old daughter in 2014 has been sentenced to death by a local court on Thursday.
Ikram Khan was charged for killing his daughter in an attempt to frame the village sarpanch and his associates, who had penalized him for slaughtering and selling beef in the village.
Mewat district and sessions judge MM Dhonchak ruled that Khan was guilty of the most inhuman act to settle scores with his rivals. The judge said, “Convict killed an innocent child who was to seek protection from her father. …The murder was committed with a pre-meditated mind and in an inhuman and barbaric manner.”
The incident happened in February of last year after an altercation between Khan and his village sarpanch over selling of beef, which was banned in Manota village. Soon, the talking turned into a clash in which 15 people were injured, including the seven-year-old Saiba, who later succumbed to injuries in a hospital.
In his statement to the police, Khan accused Khursheed, Nasru, Hakkrudin and others of attacking him with sharp-edged weapons and murdering his daughter.
According to an investigation by the crime branch, Khan, who was banned from slaughtering cows and selling beef, continued doing so despite a resolution passed by the panchayat. Even though the members of the panchayat warned him several times, Khan brushed aside all these and went ahead with selling beef, which irked the villagers who later slapped a penalty on him and announced a social boycott. They had also registered a case against him.
Khursheed and some other villagers surrounded the beef shop. Khan along with his brothers protested by pelting stones. In the ensuing clash, Khan murdered his daughter by slitting her throat and tried putting the blame on Khursheed and others. Police later charged Khursheed for murder and Khan for cow slaughter.
In the course of the investigation, Khan confessed to the police that it was he who murdered Saiba with a sharp weapon that was earlier recovered from the spot.