25_Kol_SL_Srishti Lakhotia Calcutta HC reduced life imprisonment of husband convicted for setting wife on fire
Times of India | 6 September 2026
Status: Not Approved
HEAD: 25_Kol_SL_Srishti Lakhotia Calcutta HC reduced life imprisonment of husband convicted for setting wife on fire
Byline: Srishti Lakhotia
Srishti Lakhotia
Kolkata: “Had he not been drunk, he ‘may’ not have committed the murder,” Calcutta High Court observed, reducing the offence from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder of a Murshidabad man who set his wife on fire for refusing to give earrings for gambling. The man already spent 13 years in prison serving life for murder.
The maximum sentence for a crime committed under section 304 (part II) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, is 10 years.
The division bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi noted that the couple were married for 17 long years. They observed that if the husband had an intention to kill his wife, he would not have called a “quack doctor” to treat her or hired a taxi to take her to her paternal home for admission in Anupnagar BPHC Hospital.
The case dates back to the fateful day of December 18, 2011, when convict Aktar Sk returned home in an inebriated state, asked his wife for an earring, and, on refusal, set her on fire. It was stated that he was a habitual gambler.
In this, there were no eyewitnesses. Two witnesses turned hostile, while others stated on a hearsay basis. The only proof that could ascertain the man’s culpability was the bed-head ticket at the two hospitals—Anupnagar and Jangipur SD Hospital—where the wife was treated for her burn injuries. She, before dying, told the doctors that the husband returned home drunk, asked for her earring for gambling, she refused, and he poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.
While this proved that he did the offence, it could not prove that he had the intention to kill her, making the offence under section 302 of the IPC. The division bench, on the other hand, stated, “Evidence does not show that the husband had ‘intention' to end the life of the victim… There is no evidence on record of any torture by the husband on the victim. No previous complaint was lodged by the victim and her family in that regard. On the contrary, the failure on the part of the complainant (victim’s brother) to notify the police of the incident from December 19, 2011 till January 1, 2012 would support the case of the defence that there is little or no evidence of offence under Section 302, much less any offence under Section 498A of the IPC."
The judges went on to observe that the couple had children out of wedlock from their previous marriages and used to live in the same house supported by the husband’s income. Further, the victim’s daughter from a previous marriage was married when they started living together. “It transpires therefrom that the convict duly took care of the children from his own previous marriage and that of the victim,” the bench observed.
END
Graphic:
The incident took place on December 18, 2011.
Convict Aktar Sk returned home in an inebriated state, asked his wife for an earring, and, on refusal, set her on fire. It was stated that he was a habitual gambler.
She died on January 1, 2012.
Akhtar was sentenced to life in July 2014. MSID:: 128779882 413 |