Man gets life term for poisoning wife

TNN Jul 27, 2012

NEW DELHI: A trial court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering his wife by administering pesticide in a glass of water that he gave her to drink.

Relying on the depositions of his three minor children and also the medical evidence, district judge P S Teji held 38-year-old Vikas Gupta of Mandawali guilty of murder (Section 302) under IPC. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

"It has already been established that it was the accused (Gupta) who gave cockroach killing pesticide to the deceased after mixing it in water. So, the medical evidence as well as FSL report establishes the case of prosecution that the accused committed the murder of his wife by administering poison to her," the court said.

The court, while convicting Gupta, took on record the statements of the couple's three children who testified that their father, who was an alcoholic, had killed their mother in front of them.

In his testimony, the couple's son said when his mother started vomiting with froth coming out of her mouth, his father kept watching, refusing to anything to save her. He said his mother's condition deteriorated soon after she consumed the water which his father had given to her.

The court also rejected Gupta's plea of alibi that he was not present at home when his wife consumed poison. "The eye witnesses (children) have categorically deposed against the accused that he administered intoxicant to the deceased after mixing it in water. So, the plea of alibi taken by the accused appears to be false," the district judge said.

Gupta murdered his wife and then took her to hospital along with other family members, said the court, adding that the case, however, does not fall into the category of rarest of rare crime warranting death penalty. The court gave him life term noting that he has three children and old parents to support.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-27/delhi/32888011_1_life-imprisonment-life-term-fsl-report