Brother identified the skeleton of his sister, Husband remained evasive where the wife was, the Supreme Court upheld the life imprisonment awarded to the husband for killing his wife.

A three judges bench of Justice Ramana, Justice Sinha and Justice Shah has passed the order in case titled KALYAN SINGH ALIAS BITTU vs STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH on 28.02.2019.

Satya Devi (deceased) was married to accused Kalyan Singh on 12.10.2007 in Renuka Temple. Theirs was a love marriage. After her marriage, deceased stayed in her matrimonial house at village Kuffri. After about two months of the marriage, accused started maltreating and quarrelling with deceased under the influence of liquor on the ground that deceased belonged to a poor family. Lateron there was some counseling. Even in some matrimonial dispute, the parties settled their issues. But suddenly, the wife gone missing and husband started giving different excuses on different occasions. Naturally, the led the family members of the wife in a belief that something was wrong. FIR was registered and ultimately, the husband got the skeleton recovered. In a murder investigation, the husband also got the weapon recovered. He was sentenced for life imprisonment and his appeal was rejected by the High Court. He approached the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court found following circumstances:

“1. relation of the deceased becoming strained with her husband soon after the marriage and the deceased leaving for Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa;

accused Kalyan Singh contracting second marriage.
accused Kalyan Singh not paying any maintenance allowance to the deceased and her child despite counseling done by the NGO at Rajgarh;
deceased moving the court at Shimla against accused Kalyan Singh under Domestic Violence Act and amicable settlement reached at between the parties in the court.
apprehension of threat to her life expressed by the deceased soon befoe her disappearance;
deceased last seen alive with her husband accused Kalyan Singh;
false explanation given by accused Kalyan Singh regarding disappearance of the deceased;
demarcation of place in Punjah Khad by both of the accused from where human skeleton was recovered;
identification of the skeleton to be that of deceased Satya Devi by her brother and also by DNA report;
cause of death of Satya was homicidal; and
recovery of weapon of offence at the instance of accused Kalyan Singh.”

Then the Supreme Court observed “The chain of circumstances is complete and the guilt of the appellant has been proved beyond doubt coupled with no explanation under Section 106 of the Evidence Act, 1872 given by the appellant”.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the husband.