Two sisters, 32-year-old Komal and her 16-year-old sibling have been arrested for allegedly murdering their father, Ram Prasad, a resident of Morna village in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, in the early hours of 23 February.
Ram Prasad was found dead on a charpoy inside his home, with multiple sharp-force injuries on his neck and body. His wife, Chandrakali, discovered the body around 7 a.m. and raised an alarm, initially claiming that unidentified persons had carried out the attack.
However, police investigations quickly pointed to the couple’s own daughters. Superintendent of Police (Rural) Aditya Bansal confirmed that the sisters were deeply upset over their father’s behaviour, alleging that he discriminated between his sons and daughters and frequently taunted them for being unmarried, staying at home, and not working. The minor accused will be tried separately under the juvenile justice system, while Komal has been formally arrested. Investigations are ongoing.
A Night of Rage After Years of Taunts
According to police, Komal and her younger sister allegedly attacked their sleeping father with a cleaver at around 2 a.m., killing him instantly, before returning to their room. Two strips of sleeping pills and the murder weapon were recovered during the investigation, and blood-stained clothes belonging to the elder sister were found hidden in a pile of fodder.
During initial questioning, inconsistencies in the family’s statements prompted investigators to conduct separate interrogations of all members present in the house that night including the victim’s wife and two sons, Amit and Sameet, before the sisters eventually confessed.
SP Rural Aditya Bansal stated that a dispute had reportedly taken place late on Sunday night, after which the sisters allegedly carried out the murder in a planned manner by attacking Ram Prasad with a knife on his neck and abdomen. A forensic team was called to the scene to collect evidence, and the body was sent for a post-mortem examination. In her early statements, Komal alleged that their father showed favouritism towards the sons and constantly criticised her for being unmarried and unemployed, causing severe distress to both sisters.
The Discrimination That Led to a Breaking Point
According to investigators, the accused reportedly complained of strict discipline, frequent scolding, restrictions on mobile phone use, and a perceived bias in favour of the male members of the family. A portrait of a household where daughters were made to feel lesser at every turn. Police said that during interrogation, the sisters confessed to killing him after repeated disputes over restrictions, taunts, and discriminatory treatment at home, which they claimed had created ongoing resentment over a long period of time.
The incident is not an isolated one. It comes in the same week that another case of a child allegedly killing a parent was reported from Lucknow, where a 21-year-old man is accused of shooting and dismembering his father following a disagreement over career choices.
Underscoring a troubling pattern of familial conflict escalating into fatal violence across Uttar Pradesh. For Komal and her sister, the years of being told they were a burden, that they should have been married off, that their brothers were more worthy of their father’s affection, appear to have built a pressure that finally and tragically exploded. The case has prompted conversations across social media about the psychological toll that everyday gender discrimination within households exacts on young women and girls who have no visible outlet for their suffering.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
This devastating incident from Morna village is far more than a crime report. It is an indictment of a culture of domestic gender discrimination that India has been slow to confront head-on. The law must, of course, take its rightful course. But we must resist the temptation to view this purely through the lens of crime.
When daughters are made to feel unwanted in their own homes, taunted for being unmarried, restricted from basic freedoms, and watched as their brothers are handed opportunities and dignity they are denied, the family home ceases to be a place of safety and becomes a slow-burning site of trauma.
No act of violence can be justified, but every act of violence demands that we ask what went so deeply wrong. India has made significant legislative strides in protecting women’s rights, yet the law struggles to reach behind closed doors, into the everyday cruelties of differential love and chronic emotional neglect.
