A 28-year-old man, who killed his wife by inflicting 21 injuries with a vegetable peeler and a brick, has been awarded life term by a Delhi court which refused to take a lenient view, saying the offender should not go unpunished and justice meted out to the victim.
Additional Sessions Judge Vidya Prakash handed down the jail term to Bihar native Devender Dass, who killed his wife at their residence in north-west Delhi in 2012, after holding him guilty under section 302 (murder) of IPC.
"The object of sentencing is that the offenders does not go unpunished and justice be done to the victim of crime and the society. It is the duty of every court to award proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was committed...
"The courts must not only keep in view the rights of the criminal but also the rights of the victim of crime and the society at large while considering the imposition of an appropriate punishment," the judge said.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Dass who had murdered his wife in a drunken state.
The court, while convicting Dass, relied on testimony of two of his neighbours who had informed the police about the incident after he had tried to run away from the spot.
"The conduct of the accused that he tried to escape from the spot after the door of his tenanted room was forcefully opened when the body of his wife was lying on the floor of the room and his two minor children were sleeping nearby the body of his wife, is a material fact and is an admissible piece of evidence," it said.
It noted that deposition of his neighbours was "found to be quite natural, plain and trustworthy" and the prosecution had proved the complete chain of events which "unerringly" pointed towards guilt of Dass.
According to the police, on November 1, 2012, Dass's neighbours reached his house after hearing some noise and saw his wife lying in a pool of blood and the convict sitting in the room.
