In a shocking desperation to father a male child, a man in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun used a sickle to slit his eight-month-pregnant wife's stomach to check the gender of the baby. The father of five daughters, Panna Lal, a resident of Badaun's Civil Lines, was sentenced to life in prison considering the brutality of his act.
As per media reports, the couple were married for 22 years and had five daughters. However, tension always prevailed between Panna Lal and his wife as he always wanted his wife to give birth to a boy. It has been revealed that he also threatened to divorce Anita and marry another woman to father a son.
All about the attack on the pregnant woman
It has been reported that on the day of the incident, the couple, like every other time, fought over the undisclosed gender of the unborn baby which unexpectedly led to Panna Lal threatening to cut open Anita's stomach to check the baby's gender and attacked her with a sickle after which she tried to run away from him.
But, the enraged father of the baby reportedly grabbed her and used the sickle to cut open the stomach of his eight-month-pregnant wife. According to Anita, the cut was so deep that her intestines were left hanging from her stomach.
Following the incident, Anita was immediately rushed to the hospital. While the mother survived the attack, her baby, a boy, could not.
In his defense, Panna Lal argued in court that Anita had inflicted the wounds on herself and filed a false case against him owing to a property dispute between him and her brothers.
UP Man gets life imprisonment
A fast-track court in Badaun on Friday sentenced a 38-year-old man to life imprisonment for slitting his pregnant wife's abdomen to find the gender of their unborn child.
Based on the complaint, the police had registered an FIR against Pannalal under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 313 (causing miscarriage without women's consent) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the police said.
Additional District Government Counsel (ADGC) Munendra Pal told PTI on Friday that the police filed a chargesheet against Pannalal.
"The matter was heard in the court of additional session judge (fast-track court) Saurabh Saxena. The court awarded life imprisonment to Pannalal and also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on him," Pal said.
