HC upholds acquittal of man accused of killing wife

The Delhi High Court today upheld the acquittal of a man who was accused of killing his wife in 1994.
While dismissing the appeal filed by deceased's father against the acquittal of his son-in-law, a bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta said "no evidence of dowry harassment has emerged against him in the case".
The court has upheld a trial court's order of acquitting Jaspal Singh Narula.
"There is no evidence that accused (Narula) was present in the house when the unfortunate incident took place. On the contrary, we have the testimonies of (defence witnesses) DW-1 and DW-2 that neither the husband (Narula) nor the in-laws of the deceased were present in the house.

"This rules out the homicidal death of deceased (Narula's wife Manjit Kaur) at the hands of the accused," the bench said.
The court further said "with reference to the evidence on record, it has been correctly opined to be accidental by the trial court."

A father's "loss of a daughter can be felt by us. But our sympathy for the grieving father cannot be the cause to overturn the verdict of not guilty return by the trial judge in a well considered judgment," the bench added.
As per the prosecution, Narula and Manjit Kaur got married in 1982. Manjit Kaur died in 1994 after an iron rod had pierced five inches deep into her eye while she was cleaning their home. The rod which reached her brain resulted in her death, it added.

Mahender Singh Chhabra, who challenged the March 31 order of the trial court acquitting Narula, had alleged that her daughter Manjit Kaur was harassed for dowry and she had been murdered by her husband.