UP Court awards life imprisonment to man guilty of killing lover for her husband's property

An Uttar Pradesh Court on Monday found a man guilty of murdering a woman for property & sentenced him to life imprisonment.

As per the prosecution case, Jameel first conspired with his friend Sunil's wife to kill him and later on when the woman refused to hand over her and her dead husband's property to him, he murdered her too by stabbing her on the neck with a knife.

Court rejected the contention of Jameel's lawyer that he was a "first-time offender" & was the sole breadwinner for his family.

In the order, the Additional Sessions Judge, Bulandshahar Vivek Kumar said that taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case, it was appropriate to punish him with life imprisonment for committing murder as his crime had been established beyond reasonable doubt.

In July 2012, Pradhan of Village Sutari, Bulandshahar Dehat, informed the Police that the dead body of a female whose throat had been slashed was found in the village. Subsequently, Jameel's name surfaced in the police investigation and he was booked under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code.

During the trial, the brother-in-law of the deceased woman recorded his statement that Jameel was a friend of his younger brother who had been murdered too. He stated that Jameel used to visit his brother's house and used to send his brother to fetch things from the market as he had an illicit relationship with his wife.

The witness further stated that Jameel and his brother's wife conspired and murdered his brother for illegally obtaining the property and falsely implicated the rest of the family.

Thereafter, Jameel forced my brother's wife to transfer the property to his name, however, when she denied it, Jameel killed her too, the brother-in-law stated.

It also came on record that Jameel made the deceased woman sell a house after her husband's death and had also obtained possession of another house belonging to her.

Considering all the evidences placed before it, the court found that there was a clear motive for Jameel to commit the crime and the murder weapon was found in bushes near railway lines at Jameel's pointing which only he could've known.

Therefore, holding Jameel guilty for the offences alleged, Court refused to award him a less severe punishment, as prayed by Jameel's counsel.

Court gave life imprisonment to Jameel along with Rs 50,000 fine for offence under Section 302, IPC and five years of rigorous imprisonment along with Rs 5,000 fine for offence under Section 201, IPC.

Case Title: State v. Jameel