Delhi High Court Upholds Life Term Of Man Who Murdered Wife, Assaulted Child

Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to a man for murdering his wife and assaulting their minor daughter on the day of their wedding anniversary.

The high court said it was apparent that the man had not been able to render a plausible explanation on the homicidal death of his wife and, rather, took a false plea that thieves entered his house and they committed the alleged offence.

It dismissed the man's appeal challenging his conviction and life imprisonment awarded by a trial court for murdering his wife and assaulting his daughter with a knife on the night of August 28, 2012.

"In the present case, the appellant (man) failed to provide any plausible explanation about the facts of the case, when (the) murder of his wife took place within the house."

"Onus on the appellant does not get discharged with the false and frivolous explanation rather the false and frivolous explanation can be treated as an additional link in the chain of circumstances," a bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Poonam A Bamba said.

The high court noted that the girl child, who was an eyewitness to the incident, as per the prosecution, was declared hostile by the trial court and tutoring of the minor before her examination could not be ruled out.

"Tutoring of ... (daugthter) before her examination cannot be ruled out as she admitted in her deposition before the court that she was staying with (the) paternal uncle of the appellant and that her real paternal grandfather also used to visit her often and they showered affection on her," it said.

According to the prosecution, on the night of the incident, the man and his wife celebrated their marriage anniversary along with their daughter after which they went to sleep.

After some time, the girl heard her parents fighting and saw her father stabbing her mother with a knife, it said, adding that the woman asked her daughter to run away.

Thereafter, the girl was also beaten up by her father, it added.

The prosecutor contended that the man used to doubt his wife's "character" and intended to murder her for which he procured a knife and surgical blades on the day of the incident and inflicted repeated blows on the dead.

To save himself after the incident, the man scattered currency notes at the scene of the crime and concocted a story about robbers killing his wife, he argued.

However, the girl testified before the trial court that she woke up hearing the cries of her mother and saw two thieves hiding behind the almirah and that her father was trying to save her mother after which both the thieves ran away.

The high court, in its verdict, said the conduct of the man was highly unnatural, particularly when his wife and daughter were injured, and he himself was injured.

"Despite the fact that the appellant had two mobile phones, he did not make the PCR call immediately nor called the neighbours on phone but went outside his house, knocked at the door of the neighbour and then asked him to make a PCR call," it said.

"Thus, from the facts noted above, it is evident that the prosecution has been able to complete the chain of circumstances. Consequently, this court finds no merit in the contentions raised by the counsel for the appellant and no ground for appellant's acquittal is made out. Appeal is accordingly dismissed," the high court said.

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