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UP murder-suicide case: Why a 25-year-old man was sentenced in chilling family tragedy
Three years after a 50-year-old businessman shot his family before ending his own life over leaked videos of his minor daughter, a UP court holds the blackmailer accountable.
A case was registered against Pankaj after the businessman’s nephew accused Pankaj of forcing his uncle to take the extreme step.
In March 2023, a 50-year-old businessman allegedly shot dead his wife (45) and 16-year-old daughter before hanging himself from a tree, after objectionable videos of the young girl surfaced.
The videos in question were allegedly circulated by a young man named Pankaj Yadav.
Three years later, a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district Saturday sentenced Pankaj, now aged 25, to 10 years of imprisonment after holding him guilty of abetment to suicide a day earlier.
“The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict. It ordered that half of the fine amount be paid to the businessman’s surviving younger daughter,” said District Government Counsel Shyam Sunder Mishra.
Nine prosecution witnesses were examined by the court during the trial, he added.
According to the prosecution, police had received information on March 13, 2023, that the bodies of a woman and her daughter were lying inside their house with bullet injuries. A licenced firearm belonging to the woman’s husband was found lying nearby. The man’s body was found in a thicket about 2 km from his house the next day, police had said.
A case was registered against Pankaj after the businessman’s nephew accused the former of forcing his uncle to take the extreme step.
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The complainant said his 16-year-old cousin had been staying at her maternal uncle’s place nearby when a youth — Pankaj — living in the locality struck up a friendship with her. Then, the youth allegedly made some objectionable videos and photographs of the girl and circulated them on social media, the complainant alleged.
Following this, the girl allegedly tried to take her life. When he heard about the incident, her father summoned her back home.
Meanwhile, Pankaj began blackmailing the girl and her family, it was alleged. Then, the tragedy unfolded.
Government Counsel Mishra said a separate case registered against Pankaj for allegedly raping the minor girl is still pending in the court. The trial in the case is in the final stage of hearing, he added.
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