The Bombay high court reduced a man’s punishment from life imprisonment to 10 years after it accepted his confession made to a doctor that he had killed his wife by slashing her wrists, but later attempted to commit suicide in guilt.
A division bench of Justices V.K. Tahilramani and Mridula Bhatkar observed, “The appellant is held guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder of his wife and he is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and a fine of `3,000 or in default further one year RI.”
A lower court had earlier sentenced Vilas Hanumant Gujar to life imprisonment in November 2007. Gujar pleaded “not guilty” to the charges and said that he and his wife Neeta had attempted to commit suicide, but while his wife died, he was injured and given treatment because of which he survived.
“Law goes by evidence, statement of witnesses and the hargesheet filed by the police. The HC had passed the order on the basis of extra-judicial evidence. The court has reduced his punishment on the basis that there was no intention to kill or had pre-planned the attack. It happened in the heat of the moment and in my opinion, the court’s order is right,” said lawyer Abha Singh.
In 2005, Gujar had a fight with Neeta and in a fit of rage, he slashed her wrists, and later repeated the same on his forearms. Gujar’s defence counsel A.G. Toraskar argued that the accused did not have any intention of killing his wife and that the assault had taken place in a heat of anger. Mr Toraskar, therefore, argued for court’s lenient view.
He also pointed out that Gujar, in guilt, had inflicted injuries to himself and to that effect, the evidence was before the court.
Feminist and legal scholar, Flavia Agnes, however, was of the view that the high court has time and again shown similar stand on issues pertaining to rape and other heinous crimes against women. “The high court’s decision is unusual, but a very
regular one. It should have awarded a harsher punishment given the stage of the case. The judgment sends bad signals to the society,” said Ms Agnes.