The Thane court said the woman in her dying declaration mentioned her husband demanded dowry
A 32-year-old man has been jailed for life for tying up his wife and burning her alive six years ago in Maharashtra's Thane district. The couple had been married for only five months till he murdered her. The woman in her dying declaration told the police that her husband had demanded dowry.
A Thane court also fined the convict, Moharamali Shafiq Khan, Rs 11,000.
Just after they got married, he used to thrash the woman for not bringing dowry, additional public prosecutor Vandana Jadhav told the court of additional sessions judge SC Khalipe.
Khan was a labourer while his wife, Afsana Moharamali Khan, was a homemaker.
On December 19, 2012, Khan gagged his wife's mouth with a cloth, tied her hands behind, poured kerosene on her and then set her on fire with a matchstick, the prosecutor said. He shut the door firmly, locked it from outside and ran away.
The woman shouted for help, following which some people in the neighbourhood came there and broke open the door. The managed to douse the fire, but the woman had suffered serious burn injuries by then. She was taken to a hospital in Bhiwandi town in Thane.
She was later shifted to Thane Civil Hospital, where she died the next day, the prosecution said.
Khan denied setting his wife on fire, and claimed that she was in a relationship with another man. The judge said the prosecution has proved that he had poured kerosene on his wife and set her on fire inside the room.
"So in such circumstances, the offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code is proved beyond doubt," the judge said in her order.
The judge said Khan's wife in her dying declaration said he had demanded dowry. "There is no other evidence on record except her dying declaration," judge Khalipe said.