Husband kills wife for burning meat curry; Bombay High Court reduces life sentence to 10 years in jail

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday reduced to 10 years in jail the life sentence awarded to a man who was convicted for killing his wife for not cooking meat properly [Suresh Madhukar Shendre v. State of Maharashtra]..A Division Bench of Justices Rohit Deo and Urmila Joshi-Phalke noted that the appellant husband had used a lethal weapon like a stick and had knowledge that the injuries caused by him could cause death. However, he did not act in a cruel or unusual manner."Admittedly, the accused had not prepared for the assault. When he saw that the deceased had not prepared the food, he abused and assaulted her. The weapon used in the present case is a lethal weapon like stick. He had knowledge that injuries could cause death of the deceased. There was an intention on the part of the the accused to cause injuries. However, the accused had not taken undue advantage or has not acted in a cruel or unusual manner," the judgment stated..The Bench held that his act would come under the exception 4 to Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code, which converts a murder into culpable homicide not amounting to murder on the ground that the incident took place suddenly and without premeditation..In its order, the Bench invoked renowned psychiatrist Sydney Brandon, who in his book Violence in Family had written -"Statistically it is safer to be on streets after dark with a stranger than at home in the bosom of one's family, for it is there that accident, murder and violence are likely to occur."The present case, the judges said, is one more example of such type of violence."The deceased is the wife of the accused. It is alleged that the incident had occurred as the deceased had not prepared meat properly due to which the accused got annoyed and he gave blow of sticks on her person and she succumbed to death," the Court recorded..On September 4, 2015, the appellant, who was an alcoholic, assaulted his wife Chhaya, this time for not cooking meat properly. Neighbours in the locality witnessed the assault and found Chhaya lying unconscious in her house the next morning. She was declared dead by the doctors. The police immediately arrested the appellant and recorded the statements of the neighbours and also the daughter of the appellant, who later turned hostile.During the trial, four of the prosecution witnesses had turned hostile, despite which the prosecution managed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.The sessions court accordingly found the appellant guilty of murdering his wife, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.."The facts on record show that there was a sudden quarrel and there was no premeditation. The injuries sustained by the deceased were not on the vital parts of her body. Admittedly, there were six injuries on the person of the deceased which were in the nature of contusions and internal injuries. The weapon like stick was used. The evidence nowhere shows that the accused acted in a cruel manner," the Bench reasoned, while commuting his conviction from that of murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.The Bench, therefore, reduced the life sentence to 10 years in jail..Advocate SG Joshi was appointed for the appellant. Additional Public Prosecutor MJ Khan represented the State..[Read judgment]