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Wife-beater gets 7-yr jail after 10-day trial

Kartikeya

29 Dec, 2006

MUMBAI: It took all of ten days for sessions court judge K P Purohit to examine ten witnesses and hear the arguments of the defence and the prosecution before pronouncing seven-year jail term for a man accused of attempting to murder his wife in July. This, despite the fact that the woman, Renu, turned hostile in court and refused to identify her husband Ramu Kashinath Yadav, 35, as the attacker.

The judge decided the verdict on the basis of circumstantial evidence given by their neighbours at Ramabai Chawl in Ghatkopar.

Yadav suspected Renu, 25, of having an affair with a money lender, Ramkewal, who belonged to their native village. The couple reportedly had frequent quarrels over the issue, and on the night of July 7 Yadav attacked Renu with a knife while she was asleep, slashing her throat and palms.

Hearing Renu's screams, the couple's neighbours Shakuntala Devadiga, Prakash Pagare, Anil Kupwate and Sudhakar Jadhav rushed to the Yadavs' house. They saw a bleeding Renu stagger out of the house while Yadav's blood-stained clothes were inside. A complaint was filed at the Pantnagar police station and Yadav was arrested and sent to jail.

He was booked for attempt to murder after a doctor certified that Renu's throat injury could have proved fatal.

Although Renu named Yadav as the attacker in her police statement, public prosecutor Hitendra Dedhia was forced to declare her hostile in court when she told the judge that she did not know who had assaulted her that night.

[ Source: The Times Of India]