A Delhi court has awarded life imprisonment to a man for strangulating his mother-in-law as she was opposed to his proposal to sell a 40-square-yard plot of land to meet his monetary needs at Narela in north Delhi in 2016.
Pressure over land
The land was registered in the name of the wife of the accused, Avedhesh. He was the second husband of Radha, who married him after her first husband died. Radha’s first husband had purchased the land in her name.
Avedhesh had been pressuring Radha to sell the land as he had been unemployed for some time, and Radha’s mother was opposed to it.
Avedhesh then strangulated his mother-in-law while she was sleeping outside her daughter’s house.He was later arrested. The local police had registered a case on a complaint by Radha. She was also examined as a prosecution witness, and stood by her police statement in the trial.
Wife’s testimony
“Testimony by Radha, the motive that accused was pressuring her to transfer the plot and the deceased was a hindrance in that, he strangulated her as deposed by Radha and corroborated by the post mortem report. Thereafter, the accused absconded as deposed... and later apprehended. Keeping in view all these facts as proved by the prosecution, I hold the accused guilty and convict him for the offence punishable under Section 302 (murder) IPC,” Additional Sessions Judge V.K. Bansal said in his judgment.
The judge also rejected the prosecution’s argument for death sentence saying it was not a rarest of rare case.
