Thane court sentences man to life imprisonment for wife’s murder

A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district has sentenced a 32-year-old man to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of his wife, whom he set ablaze during a quarrel in 2020.
Additional Sessions Judge BD Shelke on Friday found the accused, Shahir Devram Parkhe, a resident of Kalyan, guilty under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and imposed a fine of `5,000 on him.

He also took a stern stance against a key eyewitness, who turned hostile, ordering her prosecution for perjury.
As per the case details, on the intervening night of March 17 and 18, 2020, Parkhe quarrelled with his wife, Payal, who called her close friend home to mediate and settle the dispute. Later, the accused, who was inebriated, fetched a plastic bottle containing kerosene and poured it over her, set her ablaze and fled the scene.
Payal had entered a love marriage with Parkhe, and the couple resided in the Daighar area of Thane. According to the prosecution, the accused suspected his wife’s character, leading to frequent disputes and cruelty. The victim suffered 70 per cent burns and succumbed at a hospital a few days later.

Additional public prosecutor Sanjay More examined 10 prosecution witnesses. Judge Shelke analysed dying declarations made by the victim to the police, the executive magistrate, neighbours, and her mother. A significant aspect of the trial involved the victim’s friend, Kajal Mourya, who was an eyewitness to the initial sequence of events. During her cross-examination by the defence, she claimed that the victim had mistakenly ignited herself and alleged that her original statements to the police and magistrate were given under “pressure”.

The court, however, noted that she had never lodged any formal complaint regarding such coercion and had affirmed standard details about the couple’s disputes and the immediate aftermath of the fire. Mourya had deliberately suppressed material facts, told lies, and intentionally given false evidence, it stated, and subsequently issued a formal show-cause notice to her.