Life term upheld for man who raped, killed daughter

New Delhi: Dismissing the plea of a man who killed his daughter after raping her in 2005, the Delhi High Court has upheld the life sentence awarded to him by the trial court.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmad and Justice Veena Birbal dismissed the appeal filed by Mangal Singh on Saturday and said that it was clear from circumstantial evidence that it was he who murdered his daughter after raping her.

"Appellant has been rightly convicted by the sessions judge for murder and rape. We find no merit in the appeal and the same is dismissed," said the bench.

The bench based its conclusion on a medical report which indicated that Mangal Singh killed his daughter after raping her.

Unconscious

According to prosecution, on the night of October 10, 2005 neighbours heard Mangal Singh scream at his daughter and some of them saw him carry the victim on his shoulder in an unconscious state. "The appellant owed a duty to explain how a dead body which was the result of a homicide happened to be on his shoulder. The absence of a credible explanation on his part, in the peculiar circumstances of this case, points towards his guilt," the court said.

Upholding the trial court's conviction in 2009, the bench relied upon the statement of Mangal Singh's neighbours who had last seen the victim with her father. The court accepted the testimony of prosecution witnesses Rakesh and Kuldeep Kumar who said that Mangal Singh admitted before them that the girl was not his daughter and he strangled her.