Thane, Sep 1 A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a man charged with murder and criminal intimidation in the death of his wife in 2014, questioning the credibility of the uncorroborated dying declaration to her mother and the delay in filing a complaint.
Additional sessions judge V L Bhosale acquitted Sanjay Jogeshwar Yadav of the charges of murder, wrongful confinement, and criminal intimidation in the death of his wife Rama (25), noting that her mother did not lodge a police complaint for 15 days while she remained hospitalised before succumbing to 49 per cent burn injuries.
The court order passed on August 27 was made available on Monday.
The prosecution had claimed that Yadav forcibly confined, starved, and beat the victim before pouring kerosene on her on April 26, 2014. She suffered 49 per cent burns and died on May 11, 2014.
Judge Bhosale said, "The prosecution witness's own admission in the cross-examination that she did not make any complaint while Rama was alive is a circumstance that powerfully militates against the credibility of the dying declaration she claims to have heard."
The court further noted that the victim's elder sister admitted that she could not remember if Rama had told her that the stove had burst or her husband had set her on fire.
"The medical officer himself admitted in cross-examination that 'in accident also such kind of injuries are possible.'... The absence of burns to the head and scalp in this case is more consistent with a ground-level accidental fire (such as a stove burst)..." it observed, while acquitting the accused.
