NRI man stabbed his wife because she is carrying brother’s baby

SYDNEY, December 8 2004
AP

A 35-year-old Indian man was on Wednesday sentenced to 16 years in prison for attempting to murder his wife, who was pregnant with his brother's child.

Justice David Harper at Victoria state's Supreme Court sentenced Rajinder Kumar to a minimum of 13 years without parole.

His wife, Mamta Rani, was first married to Kumar's brother Baljinder and immigrated to Australia from India in the mid-1990s with her husband and his parents, Harper said.

In 1997, the family decided that Rani should divorce Baljinder and return to Punjab to marry his brother so he could immigrate to Australia as well, Harper said.

Rani returned to India and married Kumar, who was granted an Australian visa in 2000.

But once the couple arrived in Australia, Rani resumed her relationship with her former husband although she remained married to Kumar.

In November 2003, Kumar attacked Rani, then pregnant with his brother's child, in her home in the southern city of Melbourne. It was not immediately clear whether the unborn child was affected.

Harper said Kumar stabbed Rani in a fit of jealousy after using the woman to get a visa. The judge described the actions of Kumar and his family as "morally repugnant."