Man gets life in jail for electrocuting mentally ill wife

Bareilly: A court in Bareilly sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment for murdering his mentally ill wife in 2022 by tying her to a cot and repeatedly electrocuting her.Additional sessions judge Avinash Kumar Singh convicted the man on Thursday evening under IPC sections 498A (cruelty by husband) and 302 (murder), and also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000.Additional district govt counsel Harendra Singh Rathore said the convict was frustrated with his wife’s mental illness and often assaulted her. “On the intervening night of May 1 and 2, 2022, while she was asleep, he tied her hands and legs to a cot with ropes, connected an aluminium wire to an electric board and repeatedly gave her electric shocks. Despite her writhing in pain, he continued until she died,” he said.Rathore added that the accused later threw the rope and electric wire onto the roof and went to work at a nearby brick kiln around 2 am to create a false alibi. He also allegedly told police and the victim’s family that she accidentally grabbed a live wire and died by suicide.However, the victim’s brother suspected foul play and lodged an FIR. During the trial, nine prosecution witnesses were examined.The postmortem report proved crucial, confirming that multiple electrocution marks on the victim’s body could not have been self-inflicted. Police also recovered the rope and wire used in the crime based on the accused’s disclosure.