Noida: The additional district and sessions court on Thursday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his wife, who he had been married for 14 years. The court noted that the couple was estranged and they had a dispute over the sale of a house where they lived.An FIR was registered under IPC Section 302 (culpable homicide amounting to murder) against the husband, Devpal, at Sector 63 police station on March 4, 2024. His brother-in-law, Anekpal, mentioned in his complaint that Devpal and his sister, Pooja, had an estranged marriage and he suspected Devpal to be the killer.After a preliminary investigation, an autopsy and statements from neighbours in Noida regarding Devpal’s whereabouts on the day of the murder, police arrested him on March 6, 2024. Police said Devpal had come from Badayun to visit Pooja at their Noida home on March 2 and strangled her to death with a data cable. He had returned home to his village that day. The court framed charges on July 8, the same year. Devpal, however, stuck to his initial statement that he had been at his village with his children for six months and had nothing to do with his wife’s murder. In the court, the prosecution presented 8 witnesses, including Anekpal and Pooja’s colleagues. The defence presented the couple’s teenage daughter and a neighbour in the village to assert that Devpal was in his village with his children on the date and time of the alleged crime.Defence counsel Prasoon Kumar said that the weapon of offence was doubtful and the case was not supported by material evidence. Special public prosecutor Chavanpal Singh argued that the difference between the couple over selling their Noida home was a strong motive for murder. “Moreover, Devpal had doubts about the fidelity of his wife,” he said.The court noted that there were no eyewitnesses to the murder and the case was based on circumstantial evidence. It relied on the extra-judicial confession of Devpal, who had told a neighbour that he had strangled his wife with a data cable by mistake. It also noted that police had recovered the data cable based on this very confession. “The frequent quarrels over selling the house were also spotted by Pooja’s colleagues, Babli and Ranjana, and also supported by the deposition of defence witness Swati, the daughter of the couple,” judge Vijay Kumar Himanshu said. “The plea of alibi taken by the defence, that on the fateful day the accused and his family took dinner at the village Badayun does not appear to be convincing. Further … the distance from the place of incidence to the village at Badayun is reachable.”The judge declared him guilty under section 302 (IPC) and was given a life term with a fine of Rs 10,000.
