A 45-year-old man, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for setting his wife afire a decade ago, has been acquitted by the Bombay High Court which said that the victim's dying declaration cannot be relied upon as she had been given sedatives at that time.
Trimbak Shravan Pawar was convicted in 2005, a year after the incident, by a trial court for setting his wife afire by pouring kerosene on her during a domestic fight at his village home near Malegaon in Nashik district. Being aggrieved, he filed an appeal in the High Court.
A Bench of justices P V Hardas and Anuja Prabhudessaigave the benefit of doubt to Pawar in view of deficiencies in the prosecution's case. They ordered the release of the appellant from Nashik jail if he was not required in any other case.
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The court noted that the victim had been administered pain killers and sedative when she was moved to the hospital after the incident. Since sedative was given to her before recording her dying declaration, her statements cannot be relied upon, the Judges maintained.
The HC also did not accept the medical history recorded by a doctor of the victim who suffered homicidal burn injuries. This is because the medical case papers produced by the doctor were not examined by the prosecution.
Moreover, the doctor did not confirm that the details recorded by him in the case papers were narrated by the victim herself, the Judges observed.
The court noted that the report of chemical analyser indicated that the clothes of the appellant tested positive for presence of kerosene.
However, the seizure memorandum does not reflect that the clothes were sealed and remained in that condition till they were chemically analysed. No reliance, therefore, can be placed on such a report, the Bench noted.
Finding infirmities in the evidence placed before the Court, the court gave the appellant the benefit of doubt and acquitted him of the murder charge.
