A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar rejected CBI’s plea that Mahender Singh murdered Namita Lochab as he suspected her fidelity.
Upholding a Delhi high court (HC) verdict, the Supreme Court (SC) has acquitted orthopaedic surgeon Mahender Singh Dahiya of Sonepat, Haryana, of the charge of killing wife Namita Lochab in a hotel room in Brussels, Belgium, almost 32 years ago.
A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar rejected CBI’s plea that Mahender murdered Namita as he suspected her fidelity.
CBI’s case was that Mahender murdered Namita, a British national of Indian origin, on the intervening night of May 27-28, 1979, — the first night of their honeymoon after their marriage in Delhi — in Hotel Arenberg’s room 415.
The prosecution claimed Namita’s body, which was cut into several pieces with a butter knife, was found in the trash of Belgium city and was identified by her family.
Mahender, however, insisted Namita, an accounts trainee with BBC, London, left him on her own as she wanted to lead her own independent life as their marriage had been performed against her wishes.
Initially, the Belgium authorities investigated the crime. Thereafter, the Scotland Yard in London joined in the investigation as Namita was a British citizen and Mahender was keen on settling there with her help.
Subsequently, the case was taken up by CBI, which claimed to have arrested the doctor allegedly practising at Lalitpur village in Uttar Pradesh under the pseudo name of M Singh.
A trial court convicted Mahender on March 1, 1999, 20 years after the alleged crime, but HC acquitted him. It accused CBI of “falsely implicating” him at the behest of the girl’s parents. Aggrieved, CBI appealed in the apex court.
Dismissing the appeal, SC said CBI was unable to conclusively establish the dismembered body was of Namita.
The sleuths fumbled on her age. The torso and other parts of the body were possibly of an Asian-origin woman who could be between 29 and 30 years of age. Namita was 24 and had 31 teeth, whereas autopsy on the body revealed 32 teeth intact.
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