Former Host of ‘India’s Most Wanted’ Convicted of Murdering His Wife

Photo

In a case that played out like an episode of his own true-crime television show, the former host and creator of “India’s Most Wanted” was sentenced this week to life in prison for murdering his wife and trying to frame it as a suicide.

Suspicions about the host, Suhaib Ilyasi, first gripped Indian headlines in January 2000, when his wife, Anju Ilyasi, 30, was found dead from multiple stab wounds in the couple’s East Delhi home.

Mr. Ilyasi, 50, has maintained that his wife killed herself after an argument. But in his ruling, Judge S. K. Malhotra said, “The record does not indicate that she committed suicide.” He suggested Mrs. Ilyasi was killed for knowing too much about her husband’s criminal past.

The television host “committed her murder and gave it a color of suicide,” the judge said, according to local news reports.

“Injustice!” Mr. Ilyasi shouted when the sentence was announced.

Mrs. Ilyasi knew about her husband’s history of “forgeries and wrong acts, i.e., possessing two passports, using a fake degree for a job, committing credit card fraud, etc.,” the judge wrote in a 125-page verdict read in court on Wednesday.

Mrs. Ilyasi’s family has long believed her husband was responsible for her death and has pursued him through the courts and in the news media.

A coroner’s report at the time ruled the death a suicide, but the courts later reopened the case after her family petitioned for a review. Judge Malhotra concluded that the initial examination had seemingly ignored evidence, including copious amounts of the woman’s blood found in several rooms of the couple’s home that Mr. Ilyasi erroneously claimed was menstrual.

Mrs. Ilyasi’s family initially sought charges in 2000 against Mr. Ilyasi, the son of a prominent Muslim cleric, claiming that he had driven his wife to kill herself after demanding more money as part of a wedding dowry. Such dowries are common but illegal under Indian law.

It was not until 2014 that the Delhi High Court accepted a petition by Mrs. Ilyasi’s family to reopen the case and charge Mr. Ilyasi with murder.

“The verdict has finally come after 17 long years,” Mrs. Ilyasi’s mother, Rukma Singh, told reporters. “I am satisfied with the court order.”

“India’s Most Wanted,” in which Mr. Ilyasi reported on the country’s at-large criminals, first aired on Zee TV in 1998 and quickly became popular. The show was reportedly responsible for the arrests of 30 suspects. After his wife’s death, Zee TV replaced Mr. Ilyasi as host, and the show was later canceled. But Mr. Ilyasi remained a figure on Indian television, producing and starring in two other crime shows as he pursued an acting career.

Mr. Ilyasi’s lawyer has said he will appeal the conviction.