A 46-year-old Indian man was sentenced to life imprisonment after he used a sickle to cut open his 8-month pregnant wife’s stomach to check if she was going to give birth to a boy or a girl.

Panna Lal, a resident of Badaun’s Civil Lines in Uttar Pradesh, had attacked his wife, Anita Devi, in September 2020.

The couple were married for 25 years and had five daughters. 

However, they used to fight regularly as Panna Lal wanted her to give birth to a boy. 

Anita’s family knew about the couple’s dispute and tried to convince Panna Lal to stop fighting but he threatened to divorce Anita and marry another woman to father a son.

On the day of the incident, the couple fought over the gender of the unborn baby again. 

Enraged, Panna Lal threatened to cut open Anita’s stomach to check if she was pregnant with a boy or a girl. 

When Anita fought back, he threatened to kill her.

He attacked her with a sickle after which she tried to run away from him. He grabbed her and used the sickle to cut open her stomach.

Anita told the court that the cut was so deep that her intestines were left hanging from her stomach.

She ran out to the street and her brother, who worked at a nearby shop, heard her screams and came to rescue her. Seeing him, Panna Lal fled the scene. 

Anita was rushed to the hospital. While she survived the attack, her baby, a boy, could not be saved

The fast track court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Saurabh Saxena sentenced Panna Lai on Thursday, May 23, 2024. 

In court, Panna Lal argued that Anita had inflicted the wounds on herself to file a false case against him as he was in a property dispute with her brothers. 

Anita’s brother, Ravi Singh told Times of India that when his sister was pregnant for the sixth time, Panna wanted her to abort as he was convinced by a village priest that she was expecting another girl. 

“But Anita was adamant on keeping the child. He’s often beat Anita but we never thought he would take such an extreme step. We are happy he got this punishment, Sadly, my sister is not yet able to live a normal life,” he said.