Gujarat High Court Acquits Woman Sentenced to Death for Daughter's Murder | Ahmedabad News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has acquitted a woman awarded death penalty by a trial court for the murder of her daughter, who had objected to her alleged extra marital relationship with a co-accused, who too was awarded the capital punishment.

While acquitting the woman, Kanku Panvecha, the bench of Justice A Y Kogje and Justice S J Dave upheld the conviction of the woman's paramour Umang Thakkar.

However, the HC commuted his death penalty to life imprisonment saying that the case does not fall in the rarest of rare category.

By allowing Panvecha's appeal against conviction, the HC has ordered to free her, if she is not required in any other offence.

In March 2021, a sessions court in Dhrangadhra in Surendranagar district sentenced Panvecha and Thakkar for killing Panvecha's 17-year-old daughter, Sonal, on July 11, 2018.

According to the case details, Panvecha and her daughter used to work as domestic help in their native Dhama village. The mother used to work at Thakkar's house too and they got into a relationship.

Thakkar, who was 10 years younger to Panvecha, had a grocery shop and was unmarried.

When the daughter got to know about the affair, she rebuked her mother and threatened to expose the couple. After efforts to convince her failed, they allegedly hatched a plan to eliminate Sonal.

The mother convinced her to come to Thakkar's house, where they unsuccessfully tried to make her accept their relationship and remain silent about it. Sonal's non-acceptance provoked Thakkar, who took out a knife and stabbed her five times in the abdomen and once in the neck, killingher on the spot. Thakkar fled but Panvecha remained seated beside the body.

Later, Sonal's uncle Vishnu Panvecha lodged the FIR with Zinzuwada police station against his sister-in-law Kanku and Thakkar, who was arrested from Maliya town of Morbi district a couple of days later.

The trial court handed down death penalty to both and penned down paragraphs on how the woman's gesture proved the lofted idea of motherhood wrong in modern times.