Bombay High Court upholds wife killer's life term

The Bombay High Court has upheld a life sentence handed to a labourer convicted of murdering his wife on grounds of a watertight case by the prosecution.

Ramesh Ramchandra, who strangulated his wife because he was suspicious of her character, was sentenced to life in prison by a sessions court at Baramati on January 30, 2012. The HC was hearing an appeal by Ramchandra challenging his conviction.

A division bench of justices VK Tahilramani and Ajey Gadkari upheld Ramchandra's conviction observing that the prosecution had proved its case and there was enough evidence against him, which included his towel which was found wrapped around his wife's neck when her body was found.

Ramchandra and his wife Kavita had migrated from Karnataka to Baramati with their three minor children to work in sugarcane fields.

Additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai said that on November 13, 2009, Kavita's sister Kasturbai Pawar, who stayed in the neighbouring house, found that her sister and Ramchandra had not returned from work. On making inquiries, she was told that they had gone to the forest to collect wood. She then fed their three children who had been crying in the house.

The next day, she was informed that Kavita's body had been found in a sugarcane field. She identified the towel used to strangle her sister as that of Ramchandra. The police arrested him the following day.

Arfan Sait, Ramchandra's advocate, argued that there was no motive and that there was a substantial time gap between the time the couple was last seen together and the discovery of Kavita's body. Moreover, there was no evidence available on record to connect Ramchandra with the crime, argued Sait.

However, the prosecution argued that apart from the two strong circumstances i.e. motive (doubting her character) and the fact that Kavita was last seen with Ramchandra, the third and most significant circumstance was the fact that the towel used by Ramchandra was found fastened to Kavita's neck, which directly connected him to the crime.

Advocate Pai even argued that Ramchandra was an alcoholic and would often beat up Kavita when he was drunk.

Upholding the conviction, the judges observed, "The most important aspect of the present case is that, the towel, which was in regular use of the appellant and has been identified by a witness (Kavita's sister)."

"The other circumstance which connects the appellant with the crime is that blood was found on the clothes of the appellant which were seized at the time of his arrest," observed the bench.