HC upholds man's life term for killing wife

The Delhi High Court today upheld the life imprisonment awarded to a man for murdering his wife who was having an illicit relationship, saying that he had a strong motive and was directly linked to the crime.
A division bench of justices G S Sistani and G P Mittal dismissed the appeal of Delhi resident Suresh Chand and upheld the life term given to him by a trial court here in 2009.
"...Since the information given by the appellant led to the discovery of facts, which facts were within the knowledge of Suresh and also which had a direct relation and nexus to the commission of the offence, the same would be covered under the provisions of the Evidence Act.

"We find no grounds to interfere with the judgement and order of trial court holding the appellant guilty for the offence," the court said.
It said, "We also find that the evidence adduced by the prosecution, the recovery effected on the pointing out of the appellant and the disclosure made by him are sufficient to hold the appellant guilty coupled with the strong motive, which stands fully established for the offence committed."
Suresh was awarded rigorous imprisonment for life by the trial court which had also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on him on July 31, 2009 under section 302 (murder) of IPC.

He had approached the High Court challenging his conviction and sentence contending that the prosecution story was false, fictitious and fabricated.

According to the prosecution, Suresh's wife, a mother of four, had an illicit relationship with another man. Suresh, a resident of Jailerwalan Bagh here, and his wife used to have quarrel because of her illicit relationship.
On August 25, 2006, seeing a joint photograph of the woman with her paramour, Suresh became furious and asked his wife to destroy the picture but she refused.
Suresh then crushed his wife's face by hitting her with a stone, resulting in her death.

The trial court had said evidence of prosecution witnesses established that the woman was having an illicit relationship with another man as also the motive of the murder.