What could be more horrifying than a man setting his wife on fire? Well, perhaps a judgement that reduces the sentence of this man because he was only "trying to inflict burns and not kill her!"
Yes, what you read actually happened!
In a judgement that is as horrific as the crime itself, the Bombay High Court reportedly reduced the life sentence of a man to 10 years. He was convicted of killing his wife by setting her on fire.
The judges observed that this man "only wanted to inflict burns and not kill her but unfortunately the situation slipped out of control to a fatal extent.”
Bench cites a reason that may sound bizarre!
The court and the bench headed by Justice V K Tahilramani, observed that soon after he set his wife on fire, the man realised his mistake and tried to douse it by putting water on her. He even rushed her to the hospital, the court said.
This, the court said was an act culpable of homicide not amounting to murder.
“After the wife caught fire, the accused extinguished the fire and took his wife to the hospital. This conduct cannot be seen divorced from the totality of the circumstances…” Justice V K Tahilramani reportedly said.
"It was obvious that the accused realised his folly"
Justice Tahilramani also quoted a similar sentence by the Supreme Court and stated that, “It was obvious that the accused realised his folly and was filled with remorse, therefore, he extinguished the fire and took his wife to the hospital. In view of the evidence on record, we are inclined to think that all that the appellant thought of was to inflict burns and not to kill her but unfortunately the situation slipped out of control to a fatal extent.”
While the judge may have provided relief to this man, people are not happy with this judgement.
Judgement meets aam janta's criticism
Take for instance these tweets that followed soon after this news was published in the papers. Twitteratti did not take this lightly!
As you can read, the aam janta is not happy with this judgement since we are all aware that daughters-in-law in India face many rejections and problems in their lives, let alone being burnt by the husband.
Our society certainly needs more educated men and if anybody ever notices any kind of violence in a house then such men must be reported to the domestic violence cell of the National Commission for Women.
Helpline numbers for domestic violence
If you notice such behaviour my a man, you must take immediate action. As per the United Nation Population Fund Report around 2/3 percent of all married Indian women are victims of domestic violence attacks.
So you can call on the following numbers and alert authorities who will take necessary action.
- Central Social Welfare Board -Police Helpline: 091/ 1291 (011) 23317004
- Shakti Shalini: 10920
- Shakti Shalini - women's shelter: (011) 24373736/ 24373737
- SAARTHAK: (011) 26853846/ 26524061
For more helpline numbers, see here.
Read: Mothers-in-law cannot sue their daughters-in-law for domestic violence
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[All images courtesy: Pixabay]
