High Court Reduces Sentence In Wife Killing Case

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The principal bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur altered a sentence of life imprisonment to seven years of rigorous imprisonment (RI), observing that a wife's remark that, "I can keep a thousand husbands like you" indicated an indirect reference to the husband's worthlessness and constituted sudden and grave provocation.

The court held that the act resulted from sudden and grave provocation rather than being premeditated.

The division bench of Justice Vivek Agrawal and Justice AK Singh altered the conviction to Section 304 Part II of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

According to division bench, which passed the order recently, the case does not fall under Section 304 Part I of IPC but under Section 304, Part II.

Accordingly, the appellant Shiva was convicted under Section 304 Part II for causing the death of his wife, Kiran.

Shiva had filed the appeal against the judgment, dated June 20, 2023, passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Chaurai, Chhindwara district, in which the trial court had convicted him under Section 304 Part I of the IPC and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The High Court modified the conviction of Shiva who had killed his wife Kiran by striking her with a stone in Chhindwara district on the night of July 18-19, 2021.