Man sentenced to death for killing live-in partner’s two sons in Rupnagar

The court also sentenced him to 10 years on kidnap charges, and another five years for causing disappearance of evidence.
Rupnagar : A trial court in Rupnagar sentenced to death a 28-year-old man who had killed two boys in September last year reportedly because their mother, who was his live-in partner, refused to have children with him. The boys (Manav, 9, and Shivam, 6, of Ucha Khera locality) were reported missing on September 26 by their mother, Rajni, who told the police that the brothers had last left for school the previous morning.
Police found that Rajni had been married thrice, and had a daughter with the first husband, besides a son each with the subsequent two. The first two husbands had died, and she had deserted Baldev Singh of Ludhiana for a live-in relationship with Ashok Kumar, a native of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, who was angry with her for not bearing a child with him, police said. Ashok was arrested upon clues during investigation, and bodies of the two boys were recovered from the banks of the Sutlej near Alampur village. He had taken the two boys to the area on a friend’s motorcycle and drowned them there, said the prosecution.
Rupnagar sessions judge BS Sandhu held Ashok guilty of double murder and sentenced him to death under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also sentenced him to 10 years on kidnap charges, and another five years for causing disappearance of evidence. The jail terms will run consecutively in case the death sentence is not confirmed by the high court. Ashok said at the court that the sentencing is unjust and he will file an appeal in the high court.