Murder of 6-year-old boy: Indore court sentences his father, stepmother to life imprisonment

Indore, A court in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has sentenced the father of a six-year-old boy and his stepmother to life imprisonment for strangling the child to death in May 2023. Additional sessions court judge Jitendra Singh Kushwaha, in an order passed on October 22, sentenced Shashipal Munde and his wife Mamta alias Payal to life imprisonment after convicting them under Indian Penal Code sections 302 and 109 . The court also imposed a fine of ₹one lakh each on both the accused, a prosecution officer said on Wednesday. Munde, at the instigation of his third wife Payal, strangled his six-year-old son Pratik to death on the night of May 14, 2023 in Tejaji Nagar area of the city, and made a video of this incident, which he sent to Payal. Munde’s first wife and Pratik’s mother died some years back, after which he married another woman, but she left her. After that, Munde married Payal . But Pratik, born to his first wife, was an eyesore for her, he said. Payal gave birth to a boy at her maternal home, but she was not returning to her in-laws’ house, he said. According to the officer, Payal told her husband that she would return to his place only if he drives Pratik out of the house or kills him. The officer said that the police also recovered a video lasting four minutes and 47 seconds in Munde’s mobile phone in which he is seen strangulating his son Pratik to death. When the court pronounced the sentence last week, the couple’s minor son was in jail with his mother Payal. The additional sessions judge said that the district administration should make proper arrangements for the stay and education of this innocent child so that he can be made a responsible citizen and kept away from the “shadow of corrupt mentality” of both the criminals and also be connected to the mainstream of the society.