New Delhi: Suhaib Ilyasi, former television programme maker who rose to fame with the “India’s Most Wanted” series, was on Wednesday sentenced to life in jail over the killing of his wife Anju 17 years ago. Anju, then 30, died from multiple stab wounds in her east Delhi residence in January 2000.

The sentence was pronounced five days after a Delhi sessions court convicted Ilaysi based on a case filed by his mother-in-law Rukma Singh.

Apart from the jail term, additional sessions judge SK Malhotra also ordered a compensation of Rs1 million to Anju’s parents, besides a fine of Rs200,000 on Ilyasi.

Lyasi, now 51, was first charged for dowry death and related charges of cruelty to wife and destroying evidence. Torture for dowry was added as a charge then after Anju’s sister Rashmi Singh and mother Rukma alleged that Anju was tortured and harassed for dowry. However, in August 2014 the Delhi High court ruled that he should be charged for murdering his wife. Rukma’s plea for murder charges against Ilyasi was dismissed in 2011. But on her appeal, the high court ordered framing of murder charges in August 2014.

Justice Indermeet Kaur of the High Court had said that the material collected by the prosecution had prima facie justified the framing of additional charge of murder. The judge directed the trial court to frame additional charge against Ilyasi.

Ilyasi questioned that in the Supreme Court, but the apex court dismissed his plea. He had argued that Anju had killed herself after an argument. Ilyasi was arrested on March 28, 2000.

The television career of the man collapsed with the arrest. Later he launched the Bureaucracy Today magazine, on civil servants and governance issues. His father Jameel Ilyasi was top cleric at a mosque in Kasturba Gandhi Marg. Anju was the daughter of KP Singh, who was head of the metallurgy department. Anju and Ilyasi met as they studied at the Mass Communication Research Centre. Both families opposed a marriage, but Ilyasi had married Anju in London in 1993 under the special marriages act. Anju converted to Islam and took the name Afsan.

They had worked together on the Most Wanted series for Zee TV, but by the time the first episodes were aired, they had split and Anju went to live with her sister in Canada in 1994.