Disbelieving the dying declaration of a man that his wife had forcibly poured a poisonous liquid in his mouth from a bottle, the Bombay High Court has acquitted the latter and her family members from the charge of murder.
Usha Pawar and eight members of her family, including her parents and three brothers, all residents of Sinnar taluka in Nashik, were given the benefit of doubt and acquitted from the murder charge by Justices Vijaya Tahilramani and P D Kode.
As Usha is in jail, the judges ordered that she may be released if not required in any other case, while in case of others, who are already out on bail, the bail bonds were cancelled by the court.
The judges noted in a recent order that there was a delay of two days in filing FIR and no explanation was given by the prosecution about the delay. Besides, evidence of witnesses showed that deceased Vilas himself consumed poison, hence they are inclined to give the benefit of doubt to all the accused.
Deceased Vilas was previously married to Shakuntala. However, relations between the two were not cordial. Thereafter, Vilas married Usha. Relations between Vilas and Usha also soured and the latter started staying with her parents and brothers. Usha filed a case against her husband seeking maintenance in Sinnar court.
On January 11, 2007, both of them had attended the court proceedings. On the same day, after the court hours, Vilas visited his in-laws.
According to Vilas, his in-laws pinned him to the ground and assaulted him. He further alleged that his wife Usha sat on him and forced him to drink poison from a bottle.
On the other hand, Usha and her family denied the allegation. Their defence was that it was Vilas who had on his own consumed poison at their door and told them that he was doing so to teach them a lesson. He uttered the words, “I shall take you all along with me, I want to teach you a lesson.