Declaration of death can be sufficient for sentencing: HC India News – Times of India

Chandigarh: Upholding the life sentence of a Haryana accused who set his wife on fire Punjab And the Haryana HC held that if the court is satisfied that the pre-death declaration is true and voluntary, it can convict the accused without any confirmation. The brother of the main complainant, the deceased, had also turned hostile in this case.
The Bench, consisting of Justice Ajay Tiwari and Justice Pankaj Jain passed these orders dismissing an appeal filed by Sukhbir The appellant of Palwal district was aggrieved by the judgment passed by the Palwal Sessions Judge in which he was convicted for the murder of his wife in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The couple, who had two children, were married in 2008, but there were regular fights between them and the accused often beat her under the influence of alcohol. On 24 March 2014, a drunken accused started beating his wife Ranjana. with the intervention of the complainant Sonu MohantyWho was it RanjanaK’s brother, she had survived. Later the same day the accused set her on fire. He was taken to Safdarganj Hospital in Delhi. During treatment her death statement was recorded in which she confirmed that her husband had illicit relations with his sister-in-law and set her on fire.
during the trial, Mohanti, who was the brother of the deceased, turned back. However, the trial court had convicted the accused relying on the pre-death statement of the deceased. The Trial Court found that the pre-death declaration of the victim when “examined on the anvil of admissibility is wholly acceptable and no internal infirmity can be pointed out in this statement”.

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