MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has set aside the life sentence imposed on a woman in a case related to the alleged murder of her husband, citing a lack of conclusive evidence.
The court allowed the appeal filed by Nandhini of Pudukkottai, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a district court in 2022.
A bench of Justices Anand Venkatesh and Dhanapal held that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt and ordered her release.
The judges noted that the deceased's identity was not conclusively established. The body was identified based only on personal belongings such as footwear and a mobile phone, as stated by the deceased’s mother.
Though DNA samples of the parents were collected, they were not sent for analysis, the court observed.
The bench said the trial court had delivered its judgment without firmly establishing whether the recovered body was that of the petitioner’s husband.
Given these gaps, the court held that the conviction could not be sustained and set aside the life sentence.