A man was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for murdering his wife by repeatedly stabbing her with a chopper over matrimonial discord.
The court, however, refused to award death penalty to Harpal Singh, a resident of north west Delhi, saying the case does not fall in the rarest of rare category and capital punishment would aggravate the situation for his two children who have already lost their mother Jaspreet Kaur.
"I am of the firm opinion that despite hostile testimony of solitary eyewitness, all the circumstances when read together, clearly go on to show that it is the accused and accused (Singh) alone who has committed murder of his wife," Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain said.
"Keeping in mind the overall facts and circumstances of the case and keeping in mind that convict is now the only surviving parent of his two kids, I do not find it to be a case where I should award death which is going to further aggravate the situation for these two kids.
"I also have every hope that convict would be able to reform himself and the present case, therefore, does not fall within the category of 'rarest of the rare'," the judge said and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Singh.
According to the prosecution, Singh was a drug addict and an alcoholic and used to beat up his wife due to which there were frequent quarrels between them.
On the evening of February 19, 2012, Jaspreet and her helper were in her parlour and Singh came there and started talking to his wife.
He assured his wife that he would not take drugs in future but Jaspreet was annoyed with him for his habits and while they were talking, Singh became furious and took out the chopper from his jacket, police said.
He repeatedly stabbed the victim with the chopper on her neck and head and said he would kill her. When the helper shouted and raised an alarm, Singh fled the spot, it said.
Jaspreet was taken to hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.
