A 46-year-old Indian man, Panna Lal, was sentenced to life imprisonment after using a sickle to cut open his 8-month pregnant wife’s stomach to check the gender of their unborn child.

The incident occurred in September 2020 in Badaun’s Civil Lines, Uttar Pradesh. Lal and his wife, Anita Devi, had been married for 25 years and had five daughters, often fighting because Lal wanted a son.

On the day of the attack, an argument over the baby’s gender escalated, leading Lal to use a sickle to cut open Anita’s stomach, causing severe injuries.

Anita survived, but the baby, a boy, could not be saved.

In court, Lal claimed Anita inflicted the wounds herself to frame him, but the fast-track court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Saurabh Saxena sentenced him on May 23, 2024.