The Bombay High Court has upheld the life sentence awarded to a 30-year-old man for murdering his wife by throwing acid on her over a property dispute after observing that there was clinching evidence against him.
A division bench of Justices V K Tahilramani and A R Joshi upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to Balasaheb Gujale for the murder of his wife Shobha on May 24, 2005.
According to the prosecution, Gujale threw acid on his wife after she refused to sell land owned by her to pay off his debt.
Gujale, who works as a lab chemist in a dairy shop, on the day of the incident purchased nitric acid from a local shop in Sangli and went to the parlour run by the victim Shobha.
The accused had a fight with the victim and threw acid on her. While Shobha died on the spot, another woman and her minor daughter who had come to the parlour also sustained burn injuries.
A sessions court had on December 30, 2009, convicted Gujale for the murder of Shobha and causing injuries to two others and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
"There is clinching evidence to prove the case against Gujale. Thus we find no merit in the appeal," the High Court said while dismissing Gujale's appeal.
"As the appellant was working in a dairy unit he knew that acid was required to clean the dairy, hence, he must have known the properties of nitric acid and the harm it causes," the court said.
