Man sentenced to life over wife’s murder

Kanpur: An Additional District and Sessions Court on Thursday convicted and sentenced a man to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife nearly three years ago. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the convict.

The woman's father, Puttual, had lodged an FIR at Barra Police station in 2023, alleging that his son-in-law, Vinod, had murdered his daughter. He also alleged that the accused was an alcoholic and used to frequently assault his wife.

He said that he received a call on July 1, 2023 from Vinod informing that his wife had committed suicide by hanging herself.

When he sent two of his relatives in Damodar Nagar to enquire about her, they found her dead, and the accused absent from the scene. Suspecting foul play, he reported the matter to the police.

According to Sanjay Kumar Jha, additional dist govt counsel, the prosecution produced as many as eight witnesses and proved its case on the post-mortem report and the statement of the woman's son, who testified against his father in the court.

Jha also pointed out that court had observed that the station police officer and investigation officer (IO) had not investigated the matter properly which depicted gross negligence on his part.

“However the benefits of errors in investigation could not be given to the accused as prosecution had proved its case . Therefore the accused was being held guilty and punished accordingly,” he said.