Man gets life for murdering wife

Coimbatore: A 28-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment by the district mahila court here on Thursday for murdering his wife at a textile mill quarters at Sulur in November 2, 2013.

V Bakkiyaraj, 28, a native of Nerinjipatti in Ramanathapuram district, is working in a mill at Sulur where he fell in love with his co-worker Murugeswari, 22. They got married and were residing in one of the flat in the staff quarters of the textile mill.

After the marriage, Bakkiyaraj became addicted to alcohol and did not go to job properly. When his wife Murugeswari returned home with salary, he used to take away the money to buy liquor. She advised him to earn money to lead the family.

On November 2, 2013, he returned home drunk and knocked at the door of his house. When Murugeswari refused to open the door, he went to a Tasmac outlet where he consumed liquor and returned home during night hours. Later, she allowed him inside the house and she went for sleep.

Again he woke her up and demanded money to buy liquor. When she refused, in a fit of rage, he assaulted her with a wooden log. Later, he went to sleep. The next day morning, he found his wife dead.

Immediately, he tied a saree around her neck and hanged the body from the ceiling. He informed the Sulur police that his wife committed suicide by hanging. However, the postmortem report revealed that she suffered severe head injuries. Police picked up Bakkiyaraj who confessed to the crime. He was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

The trial was held before the district mahila court. The special public prosecutor R Sarojini demanded the court punish him severely. The court found him guilty under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal code.

Judge S Alli pronounced the verdict on Thursday and sentenced life imprisonment to Bakkiyaraj for murdering his wife and seven years rigorous imprisonment for section 201 IPC. He was imposed a fine of Rs 3,500. The court ordered that the both sentences are run concurrently.