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India to hang man who beheaded five daughters - report

by Nita Bhalla | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 8 August 2013 07:38 GMT

Members of non-governmental organisations hold a banner after signing it for the "One Billion Rising" campaign to end violence against women and girls, in Kolkata, on Feb. 14, 2013. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

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President rejects clemency plea of man who killed his daughters – aged 1 to 6 - in 2010 following a property dispute with his two wives

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An Indian man found guilty of beheading his five daughters three years ago is expected to be hanged for his crime on Thursday, the Times of India reported, in the first execution to be carried out in the country since February.

Maganlal Barela attacked his five daughters - aged between one and six years old - with an axe following a dispute over property with his two wives in the central state of Madhya Pradesh in June 2010.

"President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected Maganlal's plea for clemency on July 22, 2013," said the report. The last hanging took place on Feb. 9, when authorities executed Afzal Guru, an Indian national who was found guilty of the 2001 attack on the parliament building in New Delhi.

Girls and women in India face a barrage of threats - including physical and sexual violence, trafficking, acid attacks and even murder - due to conservative patriarchal attitudes that view females as inferior.

Reports of rape, dowry-related deaths, molestation, sexual harassment and other crimes against women in India rose by 6.4 percent in 2012 from the previous year, with the highest number of rapes recorded in the capital.

Statistics showed that 244,270 crimes against women were reported to the Indian police in 2012, compared with 228,650 in 2011, according to the National Crimes Records Bureau.

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