Hyderabad: Elderly woman accused of killing son-in-law walks free on benefit of doubt

Hyderabad: A court recently acquitted an 80-year-old woman who was charged with setting her son-in-law on fire at Tukaramgate here in 2014. She was 70 at the time of the incident.

The court pointed out that the police did not show much interest to connect the chain of events to prove the complicity of the accused. The prosecution did not examine the victim’s wife and brother-in-law, whom the victim’s family members alleged had harassed him. There was no plausible explanation for their non-examination, the court said.

“The investigation was conducted based on the victim's dying declaration, but nothing was prepared and recovered by the police. Further, the investigation officer did not visit the place where the victim received burns and did not find out how the victim was shifted to hospital,” the court said in its order.

The victim, while being treated for third degree burns, said in his dying declaration before a magistrate that when he and his mother-in-law were talking to each other, she got angry, poured kerosene on him and set him on fire.

After his death, the Tukaramgate police registered a case of death due to burns but later altered it to one of murder and arrested the woman.

During the trial, the victim’s family told the court that he was harassed by the accused and her son, but the court noted that this was not mentioned by the victim in his dying declaration.

The owner of house where the family was a tenant told the police that the victim had died by suicide. Police did not examine the victim’s neighbours.

The prosecution argued that the victim’s dying declaration was sufficient to prove the complicity of the accused. The court gave the accused the benefit of doubt and acquitted her as the evidence of the victim’s family and the house owner did not corroborate with the prosecution’s version.