Observing that a Bengaluru-based software engineer had murdered his wife on “sudden provocation and without any premeditation”, the Karnataka High Court reduced the quantum of sentence given to him earlier. The man was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime, which has now been reduced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh.
The crime happened on November 12, 2012, when Sidharth Chowdhary had gotten into a quarrel with his wife Ruchi, who was also a software engineer, over handing over her salary to him. This had been a point of conflict between the couple since they got married in 2008. Ruchi was living in her maternal house in Bengaluru when Sidharth came there from Delhi, where he was working. The couple started fighting, and later Sidharth took out a knife and stabbed Ruchi 17 times in the stomach, face and throat. She succumbed to her injuries.
A trial court in Bengaluru sentenced Sidharth to life imprisonment and levied a fine of Rs 10,000 on January 19, 2017.
According to a report in The Hindu, hearing a plea filed by Sidharth challenging the 2017 verdict, a Division Bench of Justices B Veerappa and S Rachaiah observed that his act was “culpable homicide not amounting to murder”, which happened in a fit of rage between the couple. Based on the oral and medical evidence, the HC concluded that the 17 injuries on the wife’s body was a result of grappling during the scuffle between the duo and “not a premeditated attack”.
The clash between the husband and wife took place possibly for “ego reasons” as both of them were earning well, the High Court said. The bench also added that it could not decide based just on the number of wounds caused by the offender as he had picked up a knife during a heated moment.