A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly has sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment for brutally killing his mentally disabled wife by tying her to a cot and repeatedly electrocuting her, rejecting his claims that she died accidentally after coming into contact with an electrical wire.
Additional Sessions Judge Avinash Kumar Singh on Wednesday convicted Vinod Kumar, 45, of killing his wife, Satyavati, in Chinna village of Bareilly district, Additional District Government Solicitor Harendra Singh Rathore said. The court also imposed a fine of $News agency PTI reported that 15,000 pounds was imposed on the convict.
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Vinod was ‘frustrated’ with his wife: Prosecution
According to the prosecution, Vinod was allegedly frustrated by Satyavati’s mental illness and was repeatedly assaulting her.
Rathore said the prosecution questioned nine witnesses during the trial to determine the charges against him.
Court records showed that on the night of May 1-2, 2022, when Satyavati was sleeping, the accused tied her hands and legs to a cot with ropes before connecting an aluminum cable to an electrical panel and subjecting her to repeated electric shocks.
The prosecution said: “She was writhing in pain, but the accused continued to shock her with electricity until she died.”
The court noted that the murder was committed in an inhumane manner.
After the crime, Vinod allegedly threw the rope and cable used in the murder on the roof and left to work in the brick kiln around 2 am in an attempt to create a false alibi.
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The husband claimed that his wife accidentally died by suicide
He later tried to mislead the police and the victim’s family by claiming that Satyavati, whose mental condition was unstable, had died accidentally after grabbing hold of a live electrical wire.
However, the victim’s brother, Sanjeev, a resident of Shahjahanpur, suspected foul play and lodged an FIR under Sections 498A (husband subjecting his wife to cruelty) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code at Nawabganj police station.
During the trial, the prosecution relied on the autopsy report prepared by Dr. Faraz Anwar, which stated that multiple electrocution marks found on different parts of the victim’s body could not have been caused by self-shocking.
The officials said that the police also recovered the rope and electrical wires that were allegedly used in the crime based on the identity of the accused.
