Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court has reduced the life sentence awarded to a man - who killed his wife for not cooking food for him - to ten years in jail, saying the crime was not pre-planned.
The court, in the ruling last week, observed that the murder was over a "petty reason and not pre-planned" and Kamlya Waghmare cannot be held guilty under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder, but only under section 304 for culpable homicide.
Waghmare was sentenced to life imprisonment by the session's court in September 2007 for murdering his wife Tara on March 14, 2006.
What prompted him to commit the murder was her refusal to cook for him.
The division bench of justices A P Lavande and S P Davare, which heard Waghmare's appeal, observed, "The accused did not intend to commit murder of his wife but intended to cause injuries to her that was likely to cause her death. The accused assaulted his wife for a petty reason that she did not cook food for him. The assault was not pre-planned."
The bench sentenced him to ten years in jail for culpable homicide.
The only evidence against him was the confession he had made before four witnesses - his relatives - about the murder when the latter visited Waghmare's house and found Tara lying dead with him sitting by her side.
The High Court said there was no reason not to believe the witnesses' account.