HC acquits man convicted of wife's murder on weak evidence

Finding discrepancies in the dying declarations given by a housewife to her father, police and doctor, the Bombay High Court has quashed and set aside the life sentence imposed on her husband for setting her ablaze as a result of which she eventually died in hospital.
In separate dying declarations given by Vijaya Shelar to her father and police, she had stated that her husband Machindra suspected her character and thus on March 24, 2004, he and his aunt had poured kerosene on her and set her afire.
However, in another dying declaration to a doctor who had treated her burn injuries sustained in the incident, Vijaya had stated that she was set afire by her husband. In this statement, Vijaya had not mentioned about her husband's aunt also being involved in setting her on fire.

"We thus find that there is a total variance in respect of number of accused who are alleged to set Vijaya ablaze," noted a bench headed by Justice P V Hardas.
"We find that acceptance of dying declaration given by Vijaya to police and oral dying declaration made to Vitthal (her father) would necessarily falsify the dying declaration recorded by Dr Sinha. Similarly, acceptance of dying declaration made by Vijaya to Dr Sinha would falsify and label the dying declaration given to police and the oral dying declaration made to Vitthal as false," the judges observed.
"It would be wholly impermissible for the court in such a situation to pick and choose any one dying declaration for basing the conviction. In our opinion, therefore, no reliance can be placed on any of the dying declaration. The appellant, in our considered opinion, therefore would be entitled to be given the benefit of doubt, the bench said in an order on April 10.