The sessions court today sentenced a man, who had worked as a hair stylist for south Indian film star Chiranjeevi and some other actors, to life imprisonment for his wife's murder.
Lisbon Miranda was accused of stabbing his wife Bindiya, a former ground staff at Jet Airways and Go Air, to death in May 2012. He stabbed her over 19 times, according to the police.
"Mirandia and Bindiya got married in October 2008. He ill-treated her, assaulted her and demanded money," said chief public prosecutor Kalpana Chavan. He also assaulted their three-year-old daughter sometimes after getting drunk. According to the prosecution, 15 days before her death Bindiya had transferred Rs 7 lakh to Miranda's bank account.
"Miranda had demanded Rs 25 lakh as dowry, of which Rs 14 lakh were given in the form of fixed deposits," Chavan said.
On the day of the incident, Miranda and Bindiya attended a party given by a friend. "He got heavily drunk, so his friends offered to drop him home. His wife followed in another car," advocate Chavan said.
On the way, Bindiya told Miranda's friends that he often beat her up and her daughter, and she did not want to stay with him that night as he was heavily drunk.
It was decided that she would collect her clothes from the house and Miranda's friends would drop her somewhere else. However, as they waited for her outside the building, Miranda's friends heard her screams. When one of them went upstairs, he saw Bindiya lying in a pool of blood and Miranda sitting next to her.
"When he asked Miranda what happened, Miranda told him that he had kill her," said advocate Chavan.
Afterwards he locked himself inside the house, and police had to break open the door with the help of fire officials.
The prosecution examined 26 witnesses. "We also produced a letter written by Bindiya to Miranda in which she had said that once when she went to Goa to meet him he had said that she was a curse and should be killed," said advocate Chavan.
Accepting the prosecution's arguments, the special women's court judge Vrushali Joshi today convicted Miranda.
