Mumbai: A Mumbai sessions court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for setting his wife on fire in April 2017, expressing doubts about her character. The accused was convicted based on the dying declaration of the deceased.
According to the prosecution case filed with the Ghatkopar police, Parvej Sayyed, the accused, was married to Kalpana Ghorpade. After the marriage, Kalpana converted and adopted the name Khushi Fatima. Due to their inter-religious love marriage, Kalpana's parents distanced themselves from her. The couple had two sons and lived in Ghatkopar.
Sayyed, who was unemployed, prompted Fatima to work at nearby households to support the family. Fatima mentioned that Sayyed often doubted her and engaged in frequent fights.
April 2017 incident
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On April 29, 2017, at around 3:00 pm, a quarrel between the couple escalated when the Sayyed accused Fatima of having extramarital affair while she was going out for work. In a disturbing turn of events, Sayyed poured kerosene on his wife and set her ablaze. Neighbours came to her rescue when Fatima cried for help. Although Fatima was rushed to Rajawadi Hospital, she succumbed to burn injuries on May 6, 2017. Following her death, a murder charge was added against Sayyed, who was arrested on the same day as the incident.
In his defence, Sayyed claimed that Fatima poured kerosene on herself and attempted suicide. However, the police had recorded Fatima's statement on the same day, contradicting Sayyed's claims.
In her statement, Fatima explained that on the date of the incident, Sayyed picked a fight with her. During the argument, Sayyed took a kerosene-filled can and poured it on her before igniting the fire. Consequently, she suffered burn injuries all over her body.
After Fatima's death, her statement was considered a dying declaration, leading to the court's conviction of the accused. The court, while finding Sayyed guilty of killing his wife, observed, "The dying declaration provides the cause and motive of the accused's act to set the deceased on fire, i.e., doubting the character of the deceased. With the intention to eliminate her, the accused burnt her alive. Setting a person on fire by pouring kerosene is common knowledge and would cause the death of such a person. Thus, the accused had full knowledge and intention to kill the deceased by burning her.
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