12-year-old girl’s testimony nails dad for killing mum, court awards life term

LUCKNOW: A court in Sultanpur awarded life imprisonment to 37-year-old Rahul Mishra after holding him guilty of killing his wife on Monday. The court had convicted him for the crime on Aug 8.

District and sessions judge Jai Prakash Pandey pronounced the sentence and also imposed a fine of Rs 11 lakh, directing that Rs 5 lakh each be given to the couple’s two children, Ishika and Atharv.

Rahul Mishra had allegedly strangled his wife Monica Gupta to death inside their SUV when they were travelling on the Purvanchal Expressway on Aug 13, 2023. He was also about to douse his 12-year-old daughter Ishika and five-year-old son Atharv in petrol and set them ablaze when a police patrol vehicle of UPEIDA spotted them and reported the matter to the police.

A police team then rushed to the spot, broke open the windows of the SUV, and arrested the man. The two children later narrated the entire sequence to the police. The girl’s statement in court against her father played a crucial role in proving his guilt.

Sultanpur superintendent of police Somen Barma said that all the evidence was preserved on the day of the crime itself. “Under IG, Ayodhya Range, Pravin Kumar, the charge sheet in the case was filed within a span of 48 hours and he had appealed to the district judge for fast-tracking the case soon after filing the charge sheet,” said the officer.

Following the murder, Umashankar Gupta, the father of the woman, filed a complaint against Rahul Mishra at the Kurebhar police station. “During the trial, the prosecution presented evidence and the girl had testified against her father in the court leading to conviction,” said DGC, criminal, Ram Achal Mishra.

SP Barma added that the IG ensured that reports of all the exhibits relating to the case were sent to the forensic lab in time and its reports were also given to us within a fixed time frame. Police in its charge sheet had stated that the accused was allegedly frustrated and felt an “inferiority complex” from his wife who had a huge fan following on Instagram. The man said that she had blocked him on this account and used to be hooked on the platform even at odd hours.

“I also learnt that some of the followers were from Lucknow and used to visit her in his absence,” the man had stated in his statement to the police. Police said that the couple had a love marriage in 2008.

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