HC acquits man of setting wife ablaze

Court says minor daughter’s testimony not reliable

The Bombay High Court set aside the conviction of a man who was earlier pronounced guilty for allegedly killing his wife by setting her ablaze after pouring kerosene oil on her. The court observed that the testimony of the couple’s minor daughter was unreliable as she had been residing with her maternal uncle and was probably tutored. The court has further ordered immediate release of the man.

A division bench of Justices VM Deshpande and Amit Borkar was hearing an appeal filed by Chandrashekar Mandavi against his conviction by the sessions court at Wardha, which had handed out life sentence to him on March 27, 2018. According to the prosecution, on September 29, 2013, Mandavi had an argument with his wife Meena, following which he set her ablaze. The incident was allegedly witnessed by their then 8-yearold daughter. Mandavi’s advocate Mahesh Rai argued that she could have been tutored.

The HC observed that the daughter had given an identical statement before the police, which was treated as the First Information report (FIR) and before the sessions court during the trial.

The judges observed, “We are of view that it would be dangerous to place reliance on evidence of Sakshi (daughter and prime witness), aged about eight years at the time of lodging of the report, and 12 years at the time of her deposition from witness box, as she was residing with her maternal uncle and, therefore, the possibility that she was under influence of her maternal uncle is not completely ruled out,” observed the judges. Rai argued that Mandavi had also taken Meena to the hospital in an autorickshaw and he too had suffered burn

“We are of view that it would be dangerous to place reliance on evidence of Sakshi (daughter and prime witness), aged about eight years at the time of lodging of the report, as she was residing with her maternal uncle and, therefore, the possibility that she was under influence of her maternal uncle is not completely ruled out”

injuries and was hospitalised. Additional public prosecutor, however, opposed the appeal stating that the daughter had no reason to implicate her father falsely in the case. Further, Meena had told her brother that Mandavi poured kerosene on her and then set her ablaze. The same was being considered as a dying declaration.

The HC observed that the police had not tried to record Meena’s dying declaration.