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| DB upholds life sentence of husband, paramour | | Katra Guest House Murder Case | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 28: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh today upheld the life imprisonment awarded to Arvind Verma and his paramour for the brutal murder of Verma’s wife, whose throat-slit body was recovered from a Katra guest house in 2011.
A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Rajesh Sekhri dismissed the appeal filed against the 2018 conviction by the Principal Sessions Judge Reasi, observing that the prosecution had successfully established a complete chain of circumstances pointing unerringly to the guilt of the appellants.
The court noted that the deceased and the co-accused woman had checked into Room No. 110 of Prashar Guest House, Katra, on March 14, 2011. The next day, when the room remained locked for hours, the guest house owner grew suspicious. On peeping through the ventilator, the woman was found lying dead on the bed in a pool of blood with her throat slit by a sharp-edged weapon. The woman accompanying her had already fled from the scene.
The prosecution established that Arvind Verma was involved in an extramarital relationship with the co-accused, and the two had conspired to eliminate the deceased, whom they considered an obstacle in their affair. They had earlier met at a hotel in Kanpur where the con piracy was allegedly hatched. The deceased was sent with the co-accused to Katra under the pretext of pilgrimage. The entry made in the hotel register under a false name was proved to be in the handwriting of the co-accused, strengthening the prosecution case.
The bench relied on the "last-seen together" theory, noting that the deceased was last seen alive in the exclusive company of the co-accused inside a locked room. The court held that the co-accused’s abscondence and failure to explain the circumstances leading to the murder provided additional incriminating links in the chain of evidence. The conduct of both accused, including delayed reporting by the husband and contradictory defence statements, further exposed their involvement, the court said.
While acknowledging the gravity and brutality of the offence, the court declined to consider the case as falling within the “rarest of the rare” category for imposing the death penalty. It upheld the life sentence awarded to both accused under Section 302 RPC along with sentences under Sections 201 and 120-B RPC. The appeal was dismissed as devoid of merit, and the trial court judgment and order were affirmed. The court directed that a copy of the judgment be forwarded to the jail authorities for compliance. (JNF) |
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