Mumbai: Sessions court sentences man to life imprisonment for murder of wife, paramour

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Monday convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment a man accused in 2015 of murdering his

wife

and her alleged paramour late night on the footpaths of Mumbai.

The man residing in a roadside shanty, was 48-years-old then and suspected her of having an affair and had clubbed both with a paver block, additional public prosecutor Rakesh Tiwari had submitted during the trial before Principal Sessions Judge S B Agrawal.

Two star eye witnesses helped nail the accused as did the medical and forensic evidence furnished by the prosecution. The prosecutor examined 11 witnesses including an autorickshaw driver who said he was in

Khar West

near the railway station on the night of September 14-15 2014 at around 2.45 am after dropping a fare, when he heard shouts and screams. On going closer he saw a man hitting a woman with a paver block and when he tried to intervene he was threatened with bodily harm. The auto driver said he thus tried to find police on patrolling duty and went to the police station finally and got back two cops with him in his auto after telling them what he saw. When they returned to the spot a man was lying on the pavement, bleeding and so was the woman.

He told the police and later deposed in court as an eye witness, who the court found was reliable and had identified the accused. The second eye witnesses who had a shop nearby also identified and deposed for the prosecution.

The accused was given a lawyer

Vasant Prabhu

from the state via legal aid and he said the evidence was inadequate and the witnesses put-up. He also argued that the accused had no motive or intention and neither was proved. But the prosecutor said the man suspected his wife of having an affair and killed them and argued that the circumstances and incriminating material were all stacked against the accused.

The prosecutor however examined the doctor who explained the injuries on the skull and chest of the woman were enough to cause her death, the

post mortem

report also established the crime as murder, and the forensic report on the blood stains on the ‘weapon’ matched with the victims.

Tiwari did not seek the death sentence, which can be given only in the rarest of rare cases.