Mumbai: A 40-year-old woman and her alleged paramour have been acquitted of the charges of murder of her husband owing to poor investigation. The court gave them benefit of doubt owing to no proof that the two were connected in any way.
Sessions judge Aditee Uday Kadam observed that the investigating officer (IO) “took no pain to investigate the case by following due procedure of law”. As per the court, he not only failed to collect relevant evidence in the form of call data records and mobile/electronic evidence, he also failed to follow the procedure to collect electronic evidence/ memory card. The court added, “He did not record the statement of material witnesses immediately though they were available with him since inception.”
Sonali Chari, a resident of Bandra, was arrested on May 30, 2017, for the murder of her husband Sachin with the help of her alleged paramour Chetan Waghela, who was arrested a month later.
As per the prosecution case, registered with Kherwadi police station, Sonali hatched the murder conspiracy with Chetan and gave her gold ring and chain to him. In pursuance of their plan, Chetan allegedly slit Sachin’s throat with a razor on May 28, 2017 on the terrace of a building at Government Colony, Bandra (East) and also tried to destroy the weapon.
The prosecution claimed that in his extra-judicial confession he said he told one of the witnesses about the murder and also sold the gold ornaments.
The prosecution had examined Sachin and Sonali’s daughter Ekta as their star witness. The morning after the murder, Ekta said that her father hadn’t returned at night and called her relatives. The police had by then recovered Sachin’s body. In her statement, Ekta stated the alleged affair between her mother and Chetan, who was their neighbour and Sachin’s friend. The affair was said to be the reason for frequent fights between the couple. However, in her testimony, Ekta denied having said this.
Though the prosecution had examined 23 witnesses to prove the case, the court didn’t accept the prosecution case. It said, “The motive on part of both the accused is not proved. Evidence adduced by sole witness Ekta on this point did not reflect the concern of Sonali with Chetan. Except bare words that Chetan was Sonali’s boyfriend, there is no other evidence to show that at any point of time both had any connection. The IO didn’t collect call data records of their mobile phones to show their association…”
