Gujarat High Court Upholds Husband's Conviction For Strangulating Wife, Staging Death As Suicide

The Gujarat High Court recently upheld a trial court order convicting a husband for his wife's murder by strangulating her with a rope but staging it to look like suicide by hanging. In doing so the court held that the prosecution had proved its burden establishing homicidal strangulation as the cause of death, adding that the accused's defence of wife committing suicide was only an afterthought. A division bench of Justice Ilesh J Vora and Justice RT Vachchani in its order held:"This Court is in complete agreement with the proposition of law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court that the initial burden always lies on the prosecution to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt and that Section 106 cannot be invoked to fill gaps in the prosecution case. However, in the present matter the prosecution has successfully discharged its initial burden by leading cogent medical, forensic and ocular evidence establishing homicidal strangulation and staging of suicide. The defence of suicide is an afterthought and is not supported by any evidence. The appellant's conduct of immediately lodging a false report and his evasive behaviour at the hospital are consistent only with guilt and the desire to screen himself from punishment. The learned sessions court has therefore rightly convicted the appellant under Section 302 IPC for intentional murder during the quarrel, with full knowledge that dori/string/rope strangulation was likely to cause death. The sessions Court acquitted on Section 182 IPC, holding the accidental death report was in self-defence without proved mens rea to mislead, which finding is not challenged by the State". The prosecution alleged that the accused and the deceased used to have frequent quarrels over domestic issues, which the deceased used to confide in her parents and others. It was alleged that during the course of one such quarrel on 20-09-2014 the accused strangulated his wife with a cotton dori/string/rope, causing asphyxia and death. It was further alleged that to screen himself from punishment and mislead the authorities, the accused staged the scene as suicide by hanging, tied the rope in a manner suggesting self-hanging, and immediately went to the Police Station to lodge a false report that his wife had committed suicide by hanging. This false information was recorded as Accidental Death. The next day, the father of the deceased- the complainant, who is a retired police personnel, lodged a complaint before the Deputy Superintendent of Police at Santarampur Police Station, alleging that the death was homicidal wherein the accused had quarrelled with his daughter, had strangulated her, and falsely reported it as suicide to evade law. It is the case of the prosecution that the accused, with the intention and knowledge that strangulation with a rope was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death and had thus intentionally caused the death of his wife and had given a false information to the police, thereby committing offences punishable under Sections 302 and 182 IPC. The trial court convicted the husband under Section 302 IPC and sentence him to life, based on the evidence including the scene of offence inspection, recovery of articles, and forensic findings.Referring to the evidence the high court said that the observations in the FSL report were pivotal, "as they painted a vivid picture of a staged or hasty attempt to simulate suicide by hanging, with the knotted dori/string/rope bearing victim's hair fibers as direct biological linkage to the strangulation". "The absence of forced entry corroborated witness statements of domestic familiarity, while the precise measurements such as the 6.6-foot drop from the chair to the dori/string/rope ends and the 1.9-foot horizontal reach to the shelf illustrated how the accused could have easily accessed and affixed the ligature without external aid, aligning with the timeline of the quarrel at 18:00 hours on 20/09/2014. Furthermore, the scattered items (e.g., remote control, power plug, and hair bunch) indicated a post-strangulation disarray consistent with the accused's panicked efforts to arrange the scene, thereby negating any defense plea of an intruder or mutual altercation...These forensic conclusions materially corroborated the prosecution's case regarding the weapon of offence (dori/string/rope) and the absence of defensive injuries on clothing, consistent with homicidal strangulation rather than suicide or accident," the court noted. The high court said that the prosecution has proved the foundational facts beyond reasonable doubt. It noted that there were prior quarrels between the parties, as established by family and neighbour evidence. "The accused was in the exclusive presence of the deceased and returned quickly. There was a loud commotion. The postmortem report revealed horizontal marks on the neck, fracture of the thyroid cartilage, ecchymosis, petechiae, and froth...

Gujarat High Court Upholds Husband's Conviction For Strangulating Wife, Staging Death As Suicide

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