Madras HC commutes jail term of woman who poured boiling oil on husband

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court recently commuted the prison term awarded to a woman for killing her husband by pouring boiling oil on him after a fight over roasting pappad for dinner.

Justice M Nirmal Kumar passed the orders while partially allowing the appeal against the trial court order preferred by the woman, Ayisha. The victim Abdul Rasheeth  died 28 days after the incident from ‘septicemia due to burn injuries’ which may be due to various reasons including improper medical treatment, the judge said. In this case, there is a dearth of medical records of the deceased, and reasons for not producing records are not known, he added.

The judge ordered, “..the conviction of the trial court under section 304 (ii) of IPC  is modified to section 326 of the IPC and the sentence of imprisonment is also modified to the period of incarceration already undergone by the appellant.” (Section 326 of IPC deals with Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means.) 

On November 7, 2012, the appellant, Ayisha of Krishnagiri, poured boiling oil on Rasheeth. The incident was a result of a fallout of their strained relationship. Sustaining severe burns, Rasheeth was taken to a private hospital in Berigai and later moved to Hosur Government Hospital. However, he succumbed on December 05, 2012. 

A case was registered under Section 302 of the IPC. The additional district sessions judge in Hosur convicted her with five years imprisonment under section 304 (ii) of the IPC (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in 2016. Challenging the conviction, she preferred the appeal. Her counsel contended that witnesses in the case were deceased’s relatives and none saw the occurrence.