Bombay HC acquits army man accused of wife's murder after 27 years
India Today
The Bombay High Court acquitted a man who was booked on charges of murdering his wife after 27 years.
In a big relief, the Bombay High Court has acquitted an army man of murder charges after 27 years of conviction.A division bench of justice Prasanna Varale and justice N R Borkar was hearing a plea filed by the man challenging the order of the sessions court at Satara.
In 1998, the sessions court awarded life imprisonment to a man for allegedly smothering his wife. The man was posted in the Indian Army at Danapur, Patna at the time of the incident. The court had also convicted him for cruelty towards his wife and sentenced him one year of imprisonment.
The High Court observed that it is difficult to hold that the death of an army man's wife was 'homicidal', reported the Free Press Journal (FPJ).
According to reports, Additional public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh told the court that the man's wife, Monika, went back to her parent's house due to harassment and did not wish to return to Patna.
However, the man somehow went to his native village in Satra and managed to convince his in-laws to send his wife back to his matrimonial home. Deshmukh said in July, 1995, the man smothered Monika under the influence of alcohol.
When the family members of the deceased went to the hospital, they found that froth was oozing from her mouth and nose and an FIR was filed, the prosecutor said.
Defending the army man, his counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said that no struggle marks were found on the body of the deceased, ruling out the homicide angle. He also said that the prosecution had failed to show evidence that Monika was being harassed.
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