Court holds property dealer guilty of strangulating wife

Accused suspected wife of having illicit relations with another man; children, landlord had testified against him

A Delhi court has held a property dealer guilty of strangulating his wife, suspecting her of having illicit relations with a man, among other evidence, on the testimony of one of their daughters and the son.

“In this case the children of the deceased and of the accused examined... specifically stated that accused used to quarrel with the deceased as he suspected her of having illicit relations with another person. Both the witnesses are consistent on this point and their testimony has gone unchallenged and un-controverted. This testimony gets corroborated from the testimony of the landlord of the house,’’ Additional Sessions Judge V.K. Bansal at the Rohini courts said, holding accused Bhupender Dutt Joshi guilty of murdering his wife on the Republic Day in 2015.

The prosecution alleged that the accused had strangulated his wife with his shoe lace.

No forced entry

“In this case it is also important to note that the dead body was found in the rented accommodation only. The body was noticed first by the daughters of the deceased and the accused. The body was found covered with a quilt. There is no evidence of any forced entry in the house or any thing that was missing or robbed from the house. These facts itself point to some person from the family or known to the deceased,” the Judge said.

Blood on shoe lace

“The detection of the blood on shoe lace that was recovered by the accused coupled with the fact that DNA isolated from the blood found on the shoe lace was found similar to the DNA of the deceased completes the chain pointing towards the guilt of the accused which is further strengthened by the motive established on record and his conduct of absconding after the commission of offence,” the Judge stated.

“In view of the above discussion, I am of the opinion that the onus which was on the prosecution has been fully discharged and it is established that it is the accused, who killed his wife due to suspicion of having illicit relations. Accused is held guilty and convicted for offence punishable under Sec.302 IPC,” the Judge futher said.