HC confirms lifer for man who killed wife in Nagpur

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court confirmed conviction of a Yavatmal based man, who prayed for leniency, for mercilessly killing his wife 22 years after marriage. “The appellant killed his wife brutally with an axe without thinking about fate of his five children to whom she gave birth. He acted in a grotesque manner and doesn’t deserve any sympathy.The offence is clearly one of murder,” a division bench comprising Justice Arun Chaudhari and Justice PN Deshmukh stated.
Petitioner Rama Gaikwad had challenged Pusad sessions court verdict of December 1, 2012, that convicted him for murdering wife Neela and awarded him rigorous imprisonment for life along with Rs 5,000 fine. He prayed for converting his lifer into culpable homicide where maximum punishment was 10 years. The couple having five children used to stay in a small house but due to paucity of space, one son, wife and husband were living in a nearby shed. Other children along with their grandmother used to sleep in the house.
The incident took place on night of December 3 and 4, 2010, when the wife was sleeping with her nine-year-old son. The son woke up after his mother’s hand fell on him and saw father holding the axe after assaulting her. Rama scolded him and asked him to quiet. But the boy ran away to inform his grandmother, who rushed to the spot and saw Neela lying in a pool of blood with an axe nearby.
Rama was arrested and awarded life sentence. He challenged that contending there was no direct evidence of his being the murder and he couldn’t be convicted merely because wife’s body was found in his house.
Citing trial court’s observations, Justice Chaudhari and Justice Deshmukh noted the deceased died homicidal death. “It is clear the husband was beating the wife and she had already realized danger to her life. She had informed her brother about her plight and was unwilling to return to the petitioner. But she had no alternative, as her brother refused to maintain her and children,” the judges stated.
They added that nine-year-old son’s testimony strongly established presence of Rama in the house at the time Neela was killed. “We are convinced the prosecution discharged its initial burden of proof. It also provided other circumstantial evidence that corroborates the evidence in material particulars. The sessions court verdict is based on evidence where the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt,” the judges observed.