Muzaffarnagar, Sep 7 A fast-track court here on Monday awarded the death penalty to a man for burning his wife alive in 2018 over dowry demands, taking the number of capital punishments handed down by the court to 23 in just four months.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar convicted Nadeem under Sections 302 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code and also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him, government counsel Kuldeep Kumar told PTI.
The death sentence was awarded in an eight-year-old case involving the killing of Nadeem's wife Shehzadi (23), who was allegedly set ablaze by him over dowry demands at Shahpur town in Muzaffarnagar district on July 23, 2018.
Shehzadi was rushed to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital in a serious condition, where she later died, Kumar said.
Before her death, her statement was recorded, in which she allegedly accused her husband of setting her on fire, he said.
Although all 11 prosecution witnesses turned hostile during the trial, the court convicted Nadeem on the basis of Shehzadi's dying declaration, the government counsel said.
Police had filed a chargesheet against Nadeem, his mother Shamshida and his sister Soni on November 23, 2018.
Soni was acquitted for lack of evidence, while Shamshida died during the pendency of the trial, Kumar said. Shehzadi had married Nadeem on January 10, 2015.
With Monday's judgement, the court of Judge Diwakar has now awarded the death penalty to 23 people in 11 different cases over the past four months, according to the government counsel.
Earlier in August, around 100 murder cases pending before Additional District and Sessions Judge Diwakar were transferred to the court of District and Sessions Judge Virendra Kumar Singh through an administrative order.
The cases, involving offences punishable with death or life imprisonment, were transferred from the fast-track court headed by Diwakar to the court of District and Sessions Judge Singh, government counsel Kuldeep Kumar had said.
The transfer came amid apprehensions among lawyers and litigants over the possibility of the court awarding capital punishment, District Bar Association president Pramod Tyagi had said.
