The Calcutta High Court has overturned a lower court’s acquittal and sentenced a farmer and four of his relatives to life imprisonment for the 2006 murder of his wife, ruling that the eyewitness account of the victim’s seven-year-old son provided crucial and undeniable evidence.
A division bench comprising Justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Rai Chattopadhyay ruled in a July 16 order that the five convicts must serve a minimum of 24 years of rigorous imprisonment before becoming eligible for any sentence remission. In addition to the life sentence, the court imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on each convict. The victim’s husband was given an additional one-year sentence of rigorous imprisonment alongside a Rs 25,000 fine, directed to be paid to the High Court Legal Services Authority.
Child Witness Testimony Deemed Credible
Addressing the trial court’s prior decision to disregard the testimony of the couple’s minor son, the High Court emphasized that witnessing a mother’s death at the hands of close family members is an extraordinary tragedy. The bench noted that the child had hidden under a bed in terror while his mother was being attacked by his father, uncles, and aunts. The judges stated that such a fearful reaction from a seven-year-old was entirely natural and emphasized that the child had no motive to falsely accuse his father or other relatives. Consequently, the bench concluded that the young boy’s testimony could not be set aside.
Details of the 2006 Crime
According to case records, the murder occurred on the night of June 6, 2006, at the victim’s marital home. The prosecution established that the husband, supported by his relatives, physically assaulted the woman and forcibly administered poison into her mouth. Evidence presented during the proceedings demonstrated that the victim attempted to vomit out the substance, ruling out any possibility of self-harm or abetment to suicide.
The court also found that the accused actively destroyed evidence following the assault by changing the victim’s saree. Furthermore, when the victim’s family arrived after being informed by the husband’s brother that she had attempted suicide, they found her lying on the veranda with froth coming from her mouth. The accused individuals initially blocked her family from taking her to a medical facility, where she was ultimately pronounced dead on arrival. The High Court highlighted that the husband knew the complete details of the plan and chose to remain silent, further confirming his direct involvement.
Dowry Demands and Legal History
The conflict stemmed from financial strain and ongoing dowry demands. Although the couple lived peacefully for the first four years of their marriage, the husband’s limited income as a farmer led him to repeatedly demand money from his wife’s paternal family. Shortly before the incident, during the festival of Jamai Shashthi in 2006, he sent his wife to her parental home to collect Rs 50,000, an amount her family was unable to provide.
Following her death, the victim’s elder brother filed a formal police complaint on July 7, 2006. A trial court subsequently acquitted all five accused persons on March 30, 2017. Aggrieved by the verdict, the victim’s elder brother challenged the acquittal in the High Court.
During the High Court proceedings, defense counsel Abhijit Ganguly argued that the trial court’s acquittal should stand, pointing out that the examining doctor was not called to testify during the initial trial, which he argued rendered the post-mortem report inadmissible. He also maintained that a shared common intention among the relatives had not been proven. Public Prosecutor Kallol Mondal represented the state in the matter.
