Man gets 10-year RI for torturing wife, abetting her suicide

The Bombay High Court has sentenced a man to rigorous imprisonment for ten years after finding him guilty of torturing his newly-wed wife and abetting her suicide even as it expressed anguish over the "rotten mentality" prevalent in society about women.
A division bench of justices Arun Chaudhari and P N Deshmukh recently held Sanjay Pachaghare, a resident of Tiwsa in Amravati district, guilty under section 306 of IPC for torturing his wife Vandana, a teacher, "in most barbaric manner" forcing her to kill herself, and acquitted other accused in the case dated 2010.
Pachaghare will have to serve the sentence without any facility of remission.

In its judgement, the bench expressed deep concern over growing marital feud between newly-weds on flimsy grounds often leading to a violent end, saying society must attend to the menace of incidents wherein doubts are raised about character of a newly-wed wife, which subsequently leads to bitterness and tragic end.
Society must make efforts to curb unnecessary, unwarranted and surly behaviour of such husbands, the judges said.
While observing that the accused behaved in the most barbaric manner, the HC stressed that only laws are not enough to combat this evil, but the need of the hour is to launch a wider social movement of educating women of their rights, particularly in rural areas.

Pachaghare used to suspect Vandana's character because she used to talk with students, and other teachers.
The appellant refused to understand that Vandana being a teacher was bound to talk to boys or other teachers, as it was a part of her profession, the HC stated.