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Journalism of Courage
‘Guilty of cruelty’: Court sentences GST assistant commissioner to 10-year jail over wife’s death
The 35-year-old officer was also convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in 2014 dowry death case
On April 30, the court had convicted Ashwani Singh who had been out on bail. He was taken into custody soon after he was pronounced guilty. (File photo)
A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district on Monday sentenced a Goods and Services Tax (GST) assistant commissioner to 10 years rigorous imprisonment after holding him guilty of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” and “cruelty” in connection with the death of his wife who purportedly fell from the terrace of their residence in November 2014.
The convict, Ashwani Singh (35), who was posted in Saharanpur at the time, had been attached with the Central GST Commissionerate in Meerut.
On April 30, the court had convicted Singh who had been out on bail. He was taken into custody soon after he was pronounced guilty.
Besides Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), he was also convicted under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to protect an offender).
The matter was posted for Monday for the pronouncement of the quantum of sentence.
“The court delivered the sentencing order when Singh was brought from jail. He was also fined Rs 1.40 lakh,” said Additional District Government Counsel Deepak Saini.
During the course of the trial, the court examined eight prosecution witnesses and nine defence witnesses, Saini said. Singh’s parents were acquitted of all charges giving them the “benefit of doubt”, he added.
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Defence counsel Pramod Gupta said they would file an appeal against the judgment.
A senior GST department official said Ashwani Singh was attached to the department’s Meerut office after he secured bail.
According to the prosecution, the family of Singh’s wife Geeta Singh had lodged an FIR in Saharanpur against the GST officer, and his parents, alleging persistent harassment and cruelty towards her after their marriage.
The complainant stated that Singh and his parents began demanding Rs 2 crore in dowry soon after the couple got married in 2013. She gave birth to a baby in 2014. The prosecution alleged that when Geeta opposed and objected to the unlawful demands, she was subjected to physical and mental harassment.
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It was alleged that the accused assaulted Geeta at their rented residence in Saharanpur’s Hakikat Nagar area on November 16, 2014 and threw her off the terrace, resulting in her death.
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