Bombay High Court upholds life for woman who conspired brother’s death – The Indian Express

Observing that the “horrendous death” of a man masterminded by his sister with the help of three others in Pune in 2013 is a “stigma” on their relationship, the Bombay High Court rejected the appeal filed by a woman against her September 2014 conviction and sentence of rigorous life imprisonment.

The court noted that the sister had been hatching a plan to kill her brother, a software engineer, who suffered migraine attacks for nearly three years. It observed that the woman, who had been staying with her brother, was in touch with one of the three co-convicts during that time and they had executed the plan by throttling the man to death.

A division bench of Justice Sadhana S Jadhav and Justice Nijamoodin J Jamadar on March 24 passed a judgment on the appeals filed by Jagjitkaur Nirmalsingh and three others, including Golu Mustak Khan, Lalla Bashir Khan and Dilip Donge,
convicted and sentenced for murder of Paramjit Singh in 2013.

On January 25, 2013, an unconscious Singh was brought to hospital by Jagjitkaur, who was accompanied by the trio, and was declared brought dead.

While Jagjitkaur claimed that she had found him lying still on his bed, the post-mortem report suggested that Singh had died due to throttling and therefore, on February 20, 2013, a case of murder was registered against her.

Additional Sessions Judge, Pune, on September 9, 2014, found the accused persons guilty of murder and sent them to jail for rigorous life imprisonment.

Jagjitkaur argued that she had no motive to cause her brother’s death and a false case had been foisted upon her. She sought an acquittal by setting aside the trial court order.

After hearing the submissions, Justice Jadhav observed, “The horrendous death of a brother at the hands of a sister is a stigma on the pure relationship between a brother and sister. It is believed that one does not choose a family and a bond between brother and sister is a gift of God. The present case destabilises this belief and shocks the conscience of the court.”

While upholding guilt of the three accused, including the sister, the bench noted that the evidence against Donge, the fourth accused was “weak” and “his complicity in executing the murder plan was doubtful”, the court acquitted him all charges and punishment giving “benefit of doubt”.