A 45-year-old man, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for setting his wife afire a decade ago, has been acquitted by the Bombay HC which said that the victim’s dying declaration cannot be relied upon as she had been given sedatives at that time. Trimbak Shravan Pawar was convicted in 2005, a year after the incident, by a trial court for setting his wife afire by pouring kerosene on her during a domestic fight at his village home near Malegaon in Nashik district. Being aggrieved, he filed an appeal in the HC.
A bench of justices PV Hardas and Anuja Prabhudessaigave the benefit of doubt to Pawar in view of deficiencies in the prosecution’s case. They ordered the release of the appellant from Nashik jail if he was not required in any other case. The court noted that the victim had been administered pain killers and sedative when she was moved to the hospital. Since sedative was given to her before recording her dying declaration, her statements cannot be relied upon, the judges said.