The Uttarakhand High Court has delivered a decisive verdict, upholding the life imprisonment of a man convicted for the gruesome murder of his wife, whose dismembered body was found stored in a freezer. A division bench comprising Justices Ravindra Maithani and Alok Mahra dismissed the convict's appeal, asserting that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and that the husband had a "strong motive" to eliminate his wife.
A Trail of Domestic Violence and Deception
The court's order paints a harrowing picture of the marital relationship. It was established that the husband was in a severely abusive relationship with the victim, frequently beating and traumatizing her. In a shocking turn, the man left his wife for a year during which he married another woman. Although he later returned to the victim, the physical abuse continued, making her fearful for her future.
The bench noted that the distressed wife had even consulted a tarot card reader who advised her to seek judicial separation. However, hoping to preserve the family for the sake of their children, she chose to remain in the toxic marriage. The victim disappeared in 2010, after which the accused offered multiple false explanations for her absence.
Chilling Cover-Up and Forensic Evidence
The High Court detailed the accused's elaborate attempts to mislead investigators. He claimed to have filed a missing person's report, a fact that was never proven. More sinisterly, he tried to create the illusion that the victim was still alive by sending emails from her account long after he had killed her.
The prosecution's case, however, was cemented by concrete forensic evidence. The victim's body was discovered in a freezer at the couple's home, a fact confirmed through DNA profiling. Following the accused's disclosure statement, additional body parts were recovered from nearby forests. The court underscored that the house and the freezer were under the exclusive control of the accused.
Court Rejects Defense, Upholds Trial Court Judgment
The convict's appeal challenged a 2017 trial court order that had sentenced him to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh. His defense lawyer, Advocate Neelima Mishra Joshi, argued the absence of a clear motive, suggesting that if he were guilty, he would not have kept the body in the house.
The state counsel, Additional Government Advocate Siddhartha Bisht, successfully countered this. He argued the motive was potent: the accused's extramarital affair and his utterly broken relationship with the victim. The High Court concurred, stating that the chain of circumstances unequivocally pointed to the husband as the sole perpetrator.
"All these circumstances...categorically prove that it is the appellant and appellant alone, who had killed the deceased, cut her body parts into pieces and threw them in the forest," the bench stated in its order, thereby affirming the life term and bringing a grim case closer to its final conclusion.
