Ex-TV host Suhaib Ilyasi held guilty of wife's murder

NEW DELHI: As the anchor of India's Most Wanted television series, Suhaib Ilyasi detailed the tales of desperate criminals over hour-long episodes. His own story took 17 years to unfold. On Saturday, the former TV host was convicted by a Delhi court of murdering his wife. While the detailed judgment wasn't made available on the day, sentence is likely be pronounced on December 20.

On January 10, 2000, 29-year-old Anju Ilyasi had been rushed to an east Delhi hospital with fatal stab wounds in her belly. She had bled excessively and could not be revived. When police questioned him, Ilyasi had told them that his wife had stabbed herself during a heated argument with him.

Two and a half months after the incident, on March 28, Ilyasi had been arrested and charged with harassing his wife for dowry (Section 498A of IPC), causing dowry death (Section 304B) and tampering with evidence (Section 201).

"Additional sessions judge S K Malhotra convicted Ilyasi under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder on Saturday," said lawyer Satender Sharma, counsel for the complainants, Anju's mother and sister.

Advocate Manu Sharma, who argued in Ilyasi's defence, told TOI he would be in a better position to comment once he read the detailed judgment. "The copy of the court order has not been provided to us," Manu Sharma explained. He, however, added that an appeal against the conviction would be moved in Delhi high court once the sentence is read out on December 20.

On August 12, 2014, the Delhi high court had ordered the framing of murder charges against Ilyasi after Anju's mother pleaded that Ilyasi had "deliberately and intentionally" given a wrong statement about the death of his wife. Satender Sharma also argued that the statement of the doctor who conducted the post-mortem and was a prosecution witness did not rule out the possibility of homicide.

In support of his submission, the prosecution lawyer pointed out that the knife with which Anju was alleged to have committed suicide showed no fingerprints either of the accused or the victim, despite Ilyasi having claimed that he had snatched the weapon of offence from his wife as she tried to kill herself.

Satender Sharma also argued that it was a planned murder because the victim could not have stabbed herself twice. "A medical board, which was set up on court's directions, and comprising five doctors, had unanimously opined that it was a homicide," said the lawyer on Saturday.

When the trial court added the murder charge in the case, it had said, "On the intervening night of January 10 and 11, 2000, at B-13, IFS apartments, Mayur Vihar phase I, Delhi... you committed the murder of your wife Anju Ilyasi and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 302 IPC and within the cognizance of this court."