Life term upheld for man who stabbed wife to death

The Delhi High Court has upheld the life imprisonment of a man who was convicted of stabbing his wife to death with a pair of scissors following a quarrel.

A Bench of Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice I.S. Mehta refused to accept the contention of the man that the offence was a result of sudden provocation that will fall under ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.

“There is nothing to show that the victim offered any provocation to the appellant [man], leave alone a grave or sudden provocation,” the Bench said, adding, “There were multiple stab wounds on the vital parts, leaving the deceased with absolutely no chance of survival.”

“If it was a single stab wound, it might still have been possible for the appellant to argue that there was no intention to kill the deceased...,” the court noted.

He had married the deceased after his first wife died. At this time, he had two children from his first wife and the deceased also had two children from her previous marriage.

4-year-old witness

The case of the prosecution rested essentially on the eye-witness testimony of the man’s stepdaughter (4).

She stated that on the night of June 28, 2010, a quarrel erupted between her mother and the man. When she stepped out of her room, she found her stepfather attacking her mother physically. He asked her to go inside and watch TV. After some time, she heard her mother crying when she came out again. She saw the accused was inflicting injuries on her with some object.

When her brother came, they took her mother to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead. The man was later apprehended from Anand Vihar. Also, the weapon of offence was recovered from under the sink in the kitchen. The scissors were bloodstained.