A Bengaluru court has sentenced to life imprisonment to a food delivery agent from Jharkhand who was found guilty of killing his two stepdaughters, aged 16 and 14 years, last year.
Sumit Mohan, 33, a resident of Cauvery Layout in Amrutahalli in Bengaluru, was also fined Rs 50,000 by the 51st additional city civil and sessions judge Santosh C B on Saturday.
Sumit Mohan has been in judicial custody at Bengaluru Central Prison since his arrest on August 25, 2024—a day after the murders. He was trying to leave Bengaluru when the police caught up with him at a hideout.
According to the prosecution, Mohan married Anita Yadav, a divorcee and the mother of the two girls, in January 2021. Tensions had been simmering within the family, particularly between him and his stepdaughters. The elder daughter, Srishti, refused to accept Mohan’s authority, often telling him he was not their father.
On August 24, Mohan saw Srishti speaking to a boy on the phone. When he questioned her, she shouted at him, saying he had no right to interfere. Enraged, Mohan tried to strangle her and she collapsed. Moments later, 14-year-old Sonia, who had just stepped out of the bathroom, confronted him. When she too rebuked him, Mohan tried to strangle his younger stepdaughter as well. After both girls fell unconscious, Mohan went to the kitchen, took a Chinese knife and slit their throats, according to the prosecution. He fled the scene immediately afterwards.
It was Anita who alerted the police after finding her daughters murdered when she returned home in the evening from a garment factory where she worked.
A graduate, Mohan told the police he had met Anita through a matrimonial website and moved to Bengaluru to marry her, despite knowing his family would not approve of their marriage. He said he was frustrated by the girls’ refusal to accept him and claimed he had done his best to raise them.
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