SC acquits Wife convicted on basis of "unnatural conduct" of not crying at Husband’s death

November 1, 2018

A woman in Assam was convicted for murder of her husband and spent 5 years behind bars while undergoing life imprisonment.

The evidence that sent her to jail was that she was last seen with her husband before the mysterious murder & she did not weep at his death.

However, the Supreme Court came to her rescue & set aside her conviction on Wednesday & refused to give credence to the reasoning of the Trial Court & the Gauhati High Court which had held that her "unnatural conduct" by not crying at the time of her husband's unnatural death proved her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The trial court and the HC relied heavily on Last Seen theory which established her presence with the deceased at night when he was killed & had held her "unnatural conduct" of not crying proved that she was the killer of her husband.

A bench of Justice R F Nariman & Justice Navin Sinha, however, said that circumstantial evidence didn't lead to inescapable conclusion that she had killed her husband & directed her release from custody forthwith.