‘Not schizophrenic, he planned to kill his wife’

The law usually makes allowances for the mentally unsound, but a judgement by the Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court has made it clear that no criminal could take shelter under the law on the pretext of suffering from a mental ailment.

Reversing the order of the trial court, which had acquitted Uttam Somwanshi, 47, who “smashed” his wife’s head with a pestle on August 30, 2003, the HC sentenced the accused to life imprisonment last week. It ruled that the defence had not sufficiently proved that Somwanshi, who had a history of schizophrenia, could be exempted from the punishment for homicide.

According to Section 84 IPC, a person is exonerated from liability for doing an act on the ground of unsoundness of mind if at that time he/she is incapable of knowing that the act is wrong or contrary to the law.

However, Justice NV Dabholkar and Justice PR Borkar were of the view that although Somwanshi was treated for schizophrenia earlier, he had “planned” to kill his wife, Vatchalabai, and was fit at the time of committing the crime.

As per witness accounts given by the couple’s children, Somwanshi was upset with his wife for visiting a temple without his permission on August 29, 2003. The next day, while his wife was sleeping outside their house in Shrirampur in Ahmednagar,
Somwanshi went inside the house looking for a pestle. Once outside, he latched the house door and began to hit his wife with the pestle. Vatchalabai died in hospital a day later.

His daughter also testified that the day after the attack, Somwanshi behaved normally and after finishing his daily chores, he went to the hospital to check on her mother.
The judges held that though Somwanshi was schizophrenic, he was absolutely fine a few days prior to the incident. They also said that his actions indicated that he was fully aware of what he was doing and was clearly working towards a plan.
j_mayura@dnaindia.net