The Bombay High Court has acquitted Nashik resident Sampat Tongare, who was serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of his wife, citing lack of sufficient evidence to establish his guilt.
A division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Advait Sethna set aside the 2017 conviction by a sessions court, holding that the prosecution’s case was built entirely on circumstantial evidence that failed to form a complete chain pointing solely to Tongare’s guilt.
“…these circumstances cannot form a complete chain of circumstances pointing unerringly only to the hypothesis of the guilt of the appellant (Tongare),” the bench observed, ordering his release after eight years in prison.
Tongare, a resident of Kochargaon in Dindori taluka of Nashik district, married Lata Shinde in 2014. The following year, on January 15, 2015, Lata was found dead in a nearby field. Her father, Shivram Shinde, lodged a police complaint alleging that Tongare killed her after subjecting her to repeated assaults on suspicion of infidelity.
The prosecution claimed that Tongare had earlier beaten Lata with a wooden log, prompting her to return to her father’s house. She later reconciled with her husband after assurances from his family, but within weeks was found dead due to hemorrhagic shock from facial and cerebral injuries. A bloodstained log of wood recovered from the scene was alleged to be the murder weapon.
Tongare’s counsel, Advocate Swapana Kode, argued that the case against him was riddled with inconsistencies:
- The prosecution could not establish a motive for the alleged crime.
- Hospital records contradicted the claim that Lata had earlier been treated for assault injuries, showing instead that she was suffering from fever.
- Witnesses to the purported reconciliation between families were never examined.
- The recovery of the alleged weapon of assault was unreliable, as a panch witness testified that it was shown to him at the police station rather than recovered from the field.
- Although blood stains matched Lata’s blood group, there was no blood trail linking the couple’s house to the field where her body was found.
Kode further argued that the FIR had been filed “out of anger” by Lata’s family.
The High Court concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove each circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. It noted that the circumstantial evidence presented was insufficient to sustain a conviction.
