MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside the death penalty imposed on a Pudukkottai man for sexually assaulting his minor daughter and allegedly murdering his wife in 2019. While the court acquitted him from murder charge, it confirmed the life sentence imposed on him for sexual assault.
The order was passed by a division bench of Justices R Subramanian and N Sathish Kumar. According to the prosecution, the man, aged around 53 years, had been sexually assaulting his daughter since 2017, when she was 15-years-old. When his wife came to know, the couple quarrelled. On December 1, 2019, he hacked his wife to death with a billhook after a fight, said prosecution.
A case was registered and the district court in Pudukkottai awarded him death penalty last year for the charges under Section 302 (murder), and life imprisonment for the charges under the POCSO Act. The court referred the matter to the high court for approval.
The division bench said, the prosecution failed to prove the murder charges beyond doubt. The man was found guilty based on circumstantial evidence and on the couple’s frequent domestic quarrels, the judges said.
“Unless circumstantial evidence is so strong that no other conclusion apart from the guilt of the accused is probable or possible, a conviction cannot be based on such evidence,” the bench said.
Misunderstandings in the family or a fight between spouses by itself cannot lead to a presumption of murder, the judges observed and acquitted him from the murder charge.