AMROHA: Additional district and session judge Shakir Hasan sentenced a woman, her lover and another accomplice to life imprisonment for murdering her husband and staging the crime as suicide over six years ago.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 14,000 on Babita Rani, her lover Pappu, and Ravi Kumar alias Mintu (all in their 30s) on Tuesday.
On Oct 29, 2018, at Jaytauli village in Amroha’s Hasanpur region, Prem Kumar (32), a shiksha mitra (contract teacher), was found hanging in his house. His wife initially claimed it was a suicide. She had even begun preparations for the last rites, which were underway, when police intervened suspecting foul play. A postmortem examination then revealed that Kumar had indeed been strangled to death.
Police filed a case against the three and another accused, Veerpal Singh, under IPC sections 452 (house trespass), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention). Investigators recovered mobile phones from Babita and Pappu and used surveillance data to confirm their involvement.
During interrogation, Pappu confessed to an illicit relationship with Babita. He revealed that Prem Kumar had objected to their relationship, prompting them to plan his murder. Pappu hired Mintu and Veerpal, promising them a motorbike in exchange for the crime. On the night of the murder, Babita, Pappu, Mintu and Veerpal strangled Prem Kumar and staged the scene to appear as suicide, said police.
A chargesheet was filed in 2019, and eight witnesses testified during the trial. Veerpal died in 2023 before the case concluded. The other three had been out on bail but have now been sent to jail following the judgment.
