Man convicted of wife’s murder, sentencing today

A MAN was convicted on charges of murder and destruction of evidence for killing his wife in December 2012.  Shashi Rajan Singh, an autorickshaw driver, had murdered his wife Chhaya in Santacruz. Singh had roped in his 12-year-old daughter and six-year-old son to dispose of the body. The children, who were examined as prosecution witnesses, however, turned hostile in the court.

The prosecution, led by Shankar Erande, had submitted that the accused had inserted a nail in his wife’s left foot, to ward off evil, as he believed that since it was an unnatural death, she could return as a spirit.

To settle the case, the court had relied on CCTV footage from a neighbour’s house, where the accused and his children can be seen carrying the woman’s body in a sack for disposal. Of the 30 witnesses examined, the prosecution relied on the statement of an employee of a cremation ground, where the accused had first taken the body. The court found the accused guilty under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC.

Quantum of punishment will be announced on Wednesday.