Jailed man absolved of wife’s murder

Woman’s dying declaration fails to nail husband

Additional sessions judge S P Davare on Friday acquitted Clement Thomas of the charge of immolating his wife Beena Arun Singh on the night of November 13, 2004. Thomas has been in jail since.

Despite a dying declaration made by Beena to an executive magistrate, the court had to per force acquit Thomas as the medical evidence and the testimony of the doctors contradicted the declaration. Dr Pramod Kamble, who operated on Beena, testified that “though Beena was conscious and could communicate, she could not speak because of the burns”. Under the circumstances, she could not possibly have talked to the magistrate or her children and given the dying declaration in words, as claimed by the prosecution.

The two children, Priti and Sandip, born to Beena from an earlier marriage deposed as prosecution witnesses. They told the court that they received a call at 11.58pm about their mother being burnt. When they reached Cooper Hospital, she was conscious and told them that Thomas had poured kerosene and set her on fire with his lighter. They later moved her to Masina Hospital where Beena died the next afternoon.

However, their testimony was suspect because they had filed civil suits to obtain the property jointly held by Beena and Thomas at Oshiwara and Lokhandwala.

The defence suggested that the children could just as easily be blamed for Beena’s death as they had quarrelled with her after they saw her in compromising position with Thomas.