A woman and her brother have been awarded life imprisonment for stabbing her paramour to death by a Delhi court which relied on circumstantial evidence.
Additional Sessions Judge Gautam Manan held Delhi residents Geeta, a mother of three children, and her brother Rakesh guilty of killing Inderjeet at their residence.
"Circumstances proved in the case are wholly consistent with the guilt of the accused and are leading to the only hypothesis that the accused persons have committed the murder of Inderjeet and no one else," the judge said while convicting the duo.
The court, while sentencing them to life imprisonment, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each for the offences under section 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) with 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
While rejecting contention of Rakesh and Geeta that motive of murder could not be established, the court said, "Sometimes it is difficult to decipher exact motive for committing crime... The court cannot acquit them merely because the motive has not been established".
The court relied on the testimony of the victim's brothers who deposed that Geeta was in a relationship with Inderjeet but due to some quarrel, she had left him.
It also relied on the statements of accused' neighbours who said they saw Geeta setting mattresses on fire.
"Both the accused persons are convicted for the offence punishable under section 302 (murder) IPC and for knowingly destroying evidence in fire with intention to screen themselves from legal punishment for the offence punishable under section 201(destruction of evidence) of the IPC," the court said.
According to prosecution, on January 6, 2013, Geeta and Rakesh had murdered Inderjeet by stabbing him with a knife at their residence in Uttam Nagar here and disposed off the body in a gunny bag in Dwarka.
