LUCKNOW: A district court in Auraiyya, central Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday awarded capital punishment to a woman named Priyanka for killing her three sons, all aged six years and below, at the instance of her paramour in June last year.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Saif Ahmad also sentenced the main accused’s paramour to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each of the two accused.
The court said that if he accused failed to pay the penalty, they would have to serve two additional years in jail.
According to sources, the main accused, named Priyanka, 30, who had been a resident of Bauraha village under Phaphoond police station area, was married to Avnish of Luhiya village under Basehar police station area in Etawah district around 10 years ago.
Priyanka gave birth to four sons – Sonu, 8, Madhav, 6, Aditya, 5, and Mangal, 2.
Around three years ago, Priyanka’s husband Avnish died of electrocution. After staying at her in-laws’ house for a year and a half, she moved with her four sons to her parents’ home in Bauraha village.
She lived with her children in Bauraha for about six months, but following a dispute with some relatives, Priyanka moved to Auraiyya with her kids.
Priyanka was joined by her husband’s cousin Ashish, and they started living together in Auraiyya. However, after a few months, she had a spat with Ashish following which she took all her sons to Dewarpur village on the pretext of taking them to their maternal grandparents’ place.
She then took all four of her sons to a bridge over the Sengar river and allegedly gave them food laced with poison. Sources claimed that as the children began losing consciousness, Priyanka drowned them one by one. Believing they were dead, she fled the scene and returned to Bauraha to be with Ashish.
However, locals managed to rescue the eldest son, Sonu, aged 8, while the other three drowned and died.
Based on Sonu’s statement, local police registered a case and arrested both Priyanka and her paramour Ashish, who had allegedly urged her to get rid of her children if she wanted to live with him.
Sonu later testified against his mother in court. Relying on his testimony and after hearing both sides, the district court awarded the death sentence to Priyanka and a life term to Ashish.