Bombay High Court upholds man's conviction for murdering estranged wife

The Bombay high court recently upheld the life imprisonment handed down to a 30-year-old man who is convicted of murdering his estranged wife, suspecting that she was having an affair, in 2006.

A division bench of justices VK Tahilramani and BP Colabawala, while convicting Harish Pulekar, a resident of Bhiwandi, noted, "After carefully and scrupulously examining the evidence in this case, we are of the view that the circumstances set out earlier, and from which an inference of guilt of the appellant is sought to be drawn, are cogently and firmly established by the prosecution."

According to the prosecution's case, the accused and the deceased Yogini had been living separately and had filed for divorce. On July 24, 2006, Pulekar took Yogini to a lodge in Bhiwandi and booked a room under fake names. Later, he strangulated her using an electric wire. At night, he left the lodge and was found by a police patrol party, walking in a suspicious manner. On inquiring, he confessed to the police of having committed the murder.

The police then took him to the lodge, where they found Yogini on the bed. Pulekar was then taken in custody and a case of murder was registered against him. During the trial, the prosecution examined around eight witnesses. Based on the testimony and medical evidence, he was convicted. This order was challenged in the high court in 2007.

In the high court, the defence pleaded not guilty and claimed Pulekar had been falsely implicated. The court, after going through the evidence, said, "Circumstances unerringly point towards guilt of the accused and, when taken cumulatively, form a chain so complete that there is no escape from the conclusion that within all human probability the crime was committed by the accused."