Puttur: The Fifth Additional District Court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment in Puttur on April 24, for killing his wife and destroying evidence thereafter. In a gory incident, he had killed her on the night of November 10, 2014 ostensibly, for not serving tasty dinner to him.
Suresh, a resident of Kochakatte in Perabe village of Puttur Taluk, was awarded life term by Ramachandra, the fifth additional district court judge on charges of murder, while holding him guilty in two other issues.
The murder case has been proven under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). As per Section 498, the convict has to undergo a three-year additional sentence and pay a penalty of Rs 3000 for inflicting physical, psychological and emotional damage on his wife. Similarly, under section 201, the judge ordered a seven years jail term and Rs 3000 penalty for attempting to destroy evidence in the case after committing murder. If he fails to pay the penalty, the convict has to serve an additional three months prison term, for each of the above cases. It has been instructed in the judgement not to consider the prison term served by the convict during trial, as it is life imprisonment.
Case history
This is the case where Suresh, a resident of Kochakatte in Perabe village limits, murdered his wife Lakshmi. Suresh and Lakshmi were married for 9 years before the incident took place. Lakshmi was a resident of Madwa in Kavalapudur village of Bantwal taluk before marriage. Suresh repeatedly used to harass his wife and finally killed her at 9.30 pm on November 10 after a fight erupted between the couple in the year 2014.
Suresh had fought with his wife at dinner blaming her of serving tasteless food on the night of the murder. He started attacking her with a wooden implement used in kitchen. Wife Lakshmi ran out of the house to escape from her husband’s assault then. He chased her and caught hold of her near the field owned by a person named Thaniyaru and attacked her brutally. Lakshmi died in the incident and Suresh dropped her body in a nearby well in order to destroy the evidence. The next day, Suresh reportedly told that his wife committed suicide by jumping in the well. Police traced the body in the well and sent the corpse for post mortem. On the same day, a suicide case was registered at Kadaba police station. The post mortem examination was conducted at Derakatte Forensic Lab where the case took a different turn. The forensic report indicated wounds inflicted during assault on Lakshmi’s head before her death. Ultimately it was concluded on November 13, 2014 that it was not a suicide.
Government appointed prosecutor Uday Kumar who argued on behalf of the victim, with clinching evidence in his favour based on which the trial court ruled that it was a murder case.
