On 14 June 2016 Anu Bansal from Bulandshahr, India, received 80% burns to her body and died at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, a few days later. In July 2022, her husband, Manoj Bansal, was found guilty of killing her for "not giving birth to a son".[1] He received life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000.
| Murder of Anu Bansal | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bulandshahr, India |
| Date | 14 June 2016 |
Attack type | Burning |
| Victim | Anu Bansal |
| Perpetrator | Manoj Bansal |
| Convictions | Murder
|
| Sentence | Life imprisonment |
In 2016 a first information report (FIR) was filed under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which the police later changed to 306 (suicide). The case was reopened two months later, following a letter written by Bansal's daughter Latika, to the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who subsequently recruited senior officials to take on the case. In court, Bansal's daughter's recounted their eye witness account of their mother being burned, and told the court that their father was frequently abusive to their mother for the reason that she gave birth to daughters and not sons.
The story gained wide media coverage, including in The Times of India, the BBC News, The Tribune, and The Probe, which led its readers to The Lancet's' 2021 report that shows that 50% of the world’s missing female births occur in India due to sex-selective abortion.
Background
editAnu Bansal was born to Omwati Devi of Bulandshahr, India.[2] In 2000 she married Manoj Bansal of Sheetal Ganj, a village within Bulandshahr district.[3][2] Latika and Tanya are their daughters.[2]
Incident and investigation
editOn 14 June 2016, Bansal received 80% burns to her body and died at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi on 20 June.[1][4]
A first information report (FIR) was filed under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which the police later changed to 306 (suicide).[2] The case was reopened two months later, following a letter written by Latika to the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who subsequently recruited senior officials to take on the case.[1][5][6] The letter quoted Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and stated that their father and other members of his family burnt their mother, Anu Bansal, alive, and that subsequently the police deliberately changed the cause from "murder" to "suicide".[1][7]
Lawyer Sanjay Sharma, represented the daughters, who recounted in court that their father was frequently abusive both psychologically and physically to their mother for the reason that she gave birth to daughters and not sons.[5][6] The court was informed that she had been forced to terminate pregnancies after illegal sex determination tests showed that she was pregnant with a female fetus.[1][a] The girls stated in their testimony that "At 6:30am, we were woken up by the cries of our mother. We couldn't help her because the door of our room was locked from the outside. We watched her burn".[1] According to Latika they called the local police and ambulance services but were "ignored".[1] They then called their maternal uncle and grandmother who transferred her to a hospital.[1]
Verdict
editIn 2022 Manoj Bansal was found guilty of killing his wife Anu Bansal for "not giving birth to a son".[1] He received life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000.[3] At the time of sentencing, he was 48 years old.[9]
Responses
editThe Times of India reported on the reopening of the case in 2016 and the verdict in 2022.[5][6][10] The BBC News stated that Bulandshahr's court "agreed that Bansal was guilty of killing his wife" for want of a son, based on a belief "rooted in a widely-held cultural belief that a male child would carry forward the family legacy and look after the parents in their old age, while daughters would cost them dowries and leave them for their matrimonial homes."[1] In response to the verdict The Tribune stated that it questioned the cultural preference for sons.[9] The Probe concluded their report on the murder that "like Anu Bansal, numerous women are forced to abort their baby girls and are assaulted or killed when they raise their voices in abusive marriages. The dark tales of India’s aborted daughters and missing females should be a wake-up call to our government."[7] It used the story to direct their readers to The Lancet's report that shows that due to sex-selective abortion India accounts for 50% of the world’s missing female births.[7]
Notes
edit- ^ Termination of pregnancies for the reason of the unborn baby being female increased in almost 75% of India’s districts between 2001 and 2011, and occurs within the background of a greater discrimination towards daughters than sons, as a result of a mixture of socioeconomic, cultural, and historical elements, despite that under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 using prenatal diagnostic techniques for sex-selective abortions is illegal.[7][8]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pandey, Geeta (29 July 2022). "Bulandshahr: India girls who wrote letter with blood get justice". BBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ a b c d "UP: Mother was forced to 'abort' five times to 'produce a male heir'". The Times of India. 29 July 2022. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
- ^ a b Sharma, Varun. "Bulandshahr News: तान्या और लतिका ने मां को जिंदा जलते देखा था, पिता को हुई सजा तो लिपट कर रो पड़ीं". Navbharat Times (in Hindi). Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ "A gruesome crime, a letter with blood, a battle for justice: Indian man jailed for life for burning wife alive". WION. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ a b c Rana, Uday (11 August 2016). "Bulandshahr teen writes letter to UP CM in blood: 'I saw my mother burned alive, give her justice'". The Times of India. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ a b c Rana, Uday (12 August 2016). "After girl writes letter in blood to CM, police reopen probe into her mother's death". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ a b c d Tahir, Muhammad (9 October 2022). "The dark tales of India's missing girls". The Probe. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ Saikia, Nandita; Meh, Catherine; Ram, Usha; Bora, Jayanta Kumar; Mishra, Bhaskar; Chandra, Shailaja; Jha, Prabhat (June 2021). "Trends in missing females at birth in India from 1981 to 2016: analyses of 2·1 million birth histories in nationally representative surveys". The Lancet Global Health. 9 (6): e813–e821. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00094-2. ISSN 2214-109X. PMID 33838741. S2CID 233212487.
- ^ a b Tandon, Aditi (29 July 2022). "Daughters' testimony lands father in jail for life". Tribuneindia News Service. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
- ^ Sharma, Sachin (29 July 2022). "UP: Sisters fight 6 years to get father convicted for mother's murder". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 March 2023.