Indo-Canadian father jailed for stabbing daughter

TORONTO - An Indo-Canadian father has been jailed for 52 months for attempted murder of his teenage daughter at Alliston township near here.

Forty-six-year Kamal Khanna was handed down the sentence at the weekend for attacking his 14-year-old daughter Ashna Khanna in her sleep two years ago. The court heard how the Indo-Canadian father attacked, punched and stabbed his daughter while she lay in sleep March 24, 2008.

The teenage girl woke up and ran to her younger sister’s room. But Khanna chased her and kept stabbing her in the chest, head, face and abdomen, the prosecutor said.

The father left only when the young victim went down on the floor pretending to be unconscious. The girl was rushed to hospital where she underwent multiple surgeries to her chest, head, and kidneys before she was declared out of danger.

Sangeeta Khanna, mother of the victim, told the court that she was at work when her 10-year-old daughter called to say, “Daddy is killing Ashna!”

In her statement, the victim said she suffers from flashbacks of the murderous attack when she looks at her wounds in the mirror.

“They are a constant reminder of what my daddy did to his baby girl,” she was quoted as saying.

“It is so hard when I see girls complain about their flawless stomachs being too fat, their unscarred chests being too flat. They don’t understand how blessed they are.”

Khanna, who works in a bank, told police that he attacked his daughter as she was disrespectful. He also attributed his violent behaviour to stress. The man also reportedly suffered from schizophrenia.

The Khanna family moved to Canada from India in 1982.

Financial worries, uncertainty about future and consequent stress are major problems among immigrant families in Canada, often leading to family violence. With Canadian authorities failing to provide any help to the newly arrived immigarnts, many community-based organisations are trying to address these problems.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)