A 32-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his sister-in-law, by a Delhi court which relied on the statement of his mother that her son had an eye on his brother's wife.
Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Kumar handed down the jail term to south-west Delhi resident, Sundar, for killing his younger brother's wife Neelam while she was going to lodge a complaint against him for misbehaving with her.
Along with the sentence, the court imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him for the offence under section 302 (murder) of the IPC and also held him guilty for injuring his mother, who was accompanying the victim, under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.
"He (Sundar) caused injury to Neelam with much force on a very vital part of her body. Such conduct of the accused clearly indicates that while causing injuries to the victim he had full knowledge that it was likely to cause her death," the court said.
It relied on the testimony of Sundar's mother, who was the only eyewitness, saying, "From the testimony of PW7 (mother) it has been proved that at the time of the incident only she and Neelam were present at the spot and no other person was present, who witnessed the incident...Her testimony is direct and consistent, and corroborated by other evidence."
"In these circumstances it is found that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the charge against the accused. Hence, Sundar is found guilty as charged and convicted for the commission of offence punishable under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for committing murder of Neelam," it said.
The court rejected the contention of the defence and the statement of Neelam's husband Surender that she slipped from the stairs.
"It cannot be believed that before her death Neelam told Surender that she suffered injury as a result of slipping from the staircase."
According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of April 3-4, 2012, 24-year-old Neelam was alone in her room when Sundar misbehaved with her and a quarrel broke out between them.
When Neelam left the house along with her mother-in-law, to lodge a complaint against him, Sundar attacked her with a stick on her head, due to which she fell unconscious on road. He also hit his mother when she tried to save her daughter-in-law, it said.
