Court reduces seriousness of charge against wife who murdered alcoholic, cop husband

Even after a 37-year-old woman was found guilty of murdering her husband who was a police officer in 2013, the sessions court on Thursday reduced the murder charges which were slapped against the accused to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The court thus sentenced the accused to six years of imprisonment.

In April 2013, Parvati Taksalkar, second wife of police officer Nandkishore Taksalkar, 43, had killed her husband with a hammer and kadappa (stone), while he was asleep at their residence in Marol police camp. Parvati then locked her house from outside, went to the police station and surrendered.

According to the case details, the police official was always under the influence of alcohol and used to frequently assault the accused. Both the accused and the deceased were previously married. Parvati had moved to the house of the deceased along with a son from her first husband. Police officials claim that the deceased was always suspicious about his wife's character and used to assault her even if she happened to speak to another man.

While convicting the accused, the court maintained that it was amending the murder charges which were slapped against Parvati for killing her husband, to charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. "I am of the opinion the present case will not come under the ambit of 302 IPC (murder). The manner under which the present incident took place and also the accused visiting the police station after the incident and informing the police about the incident demonstrates that the present case would come under 304(2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) IPC," said the sessions court judge.