Death Penalty for Ludhiana Woman & Phagwara Man

On 18 Apr, Ludhiana Sessions Court awarded 38-years-old Neelam Kaur the death sentence for burying alive Dilroz Kaur, the two-and-a-half-year-old daughter of her neighbor, Harpreet Singh on 28 Nov 2021. Neelam, mother of two boys aged 8 and 10 years, had a longstanding feud with Dilroz’s family members as they would check her sons for creating ruckus in the neighborhood in Shimlapuri locality. Neelam kidnapped the toddler when she was playing in the lane at 2:15 pm and drove off on her scooter to Salem Tabri, 13 km away. Neelam had the pit prepared earlier with the motive to bury the toddler alive. Ironically, Neelam was supposed to shift out of the locality the next day and initially even joined the search for the toddler. In March 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the death penalty to Baljinder Kumar alias Kala for killing his wife Seema Rani, his kids — three-year-old Suman Kumari and two-year-old Harsh, and sister-in-law Reena Rani in November 2013. Days before the murders, the convict visited his mother-in-law Manjit Kaur and threatened to kill his wife and children, who had left him over a dispute. He demanded $420 as part of the divorce settlement. Dismissing the convict’s appeal, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji said, ‘We confirm the death sentence under Section 368 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.’ While the intent of punishment is reform, in both these cases, the crimes are so heinous that the court has decided they are ‘rarest of rare’ and awarded the death penalty.