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Court acquits 19-year-old girl held for ‘murdering’ her father

More than two years after her arrest for allegedly killing her father in August 2023, a Chandigarh district court has acquitted a 19-year-old girl, citing inconsistencies in evidence and witness testimony.

3 min readUpdated: Jan 4, 2026 10:53 AM IST

A Chandigarh district court has acquitted a 19-year-old girl accused of killing her father in 2023 after finding gaps in evidence.

More than two years after the Chandigarh Police had arrested a 19-year-old girl for allegedly murdering her 52-year-old father, the Chandigarh district court has acquitted the girl.

The accused girl has been acquitted by the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Sonika.

As per the prosecution, the FIR was registered on the complaint of her neighbour who alleged that on August 9, 2023, while he went to victim Sumei Lala’s house to fill his bottle with cold water, he found Lala lying on the floor in a pool of blood and his daughter was trying to press the wound to stop the blood flow. Gulab then with the help of other neighbours and Asha, rushed the victim to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, where Lala succumbed to injuries. The post-mortem of Lala confirmed that there was a single-edged sharp weapon which was used with force on the victim’s chest.

As per Gulab’s statement to the police, the accused had later told him that her father Sumei Lala used to abuse her after coming to home drunk every day, due to which she stabbed him. She also told Gulab to take her to the police as she will seek forgiveness from the police about the incident. The police were then informed and the accused was arrested.

While recording statement of the accused, the police had recovered the knife used in the crime from Sukhna choe, on the disclosure of Asha, and registered a case of murder against her at IT Park police station.

During the trial, defence counsel Gurdit Saini argued that the girl has been falsely implicated in the case, as the knife allegedly used in the crime was a round tip and its blade was 9.8 centimetres whereas the victim’s wound was 10.6 centimetres deep, which was mentioned in a report submitted by the police and forensic experts.

Also, the defense counsel argued that the complainant in the case has admitted before the court that the accused girl never made a disclosure before him that she had killed her father with the knife.

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On hearing the arguments, the testimony of the complainant and going by the evidence, the court acquitted the accused girl from the charges. A detailed order is yet to be released from the court in this case.