Ghaziabad: Man gets life term for murdering wife based on children’s testimony

A Ghaziabad court on Wednesday sentenced a 40-year-old man to life imprisonment for murdering his 36-year-old wife, based on the testimonies of the couple’s children, who were witnesses to the crime.

According to police, convict Mohammad Ayyub attacked his wife Farzana with a spade at their house in Mustafabad, Loni, on March 30, 2024. The charge sheet in the case was filed on April 29, 2024, charges against Ayyub were framed on August 17, 2024, and the court pronounced the sentence on March 5.

“The court awarded life imprisonment to Mohammad Ayyub for murdering his wife and also awarded penalty of ₹25,000. Their children in the house were eyewitnesses and testified against their father,” said Ravi Sharma, additional district government counsel.

The prosecution produced 12 witnesses in the case. Dr Pankaj Rakesh, who conducted the autopsy, said that the body of the deceased woman bore 14 different types of injuries.

Twenty-year-old Mohammad Arham, the oldest of the siblings, who is the complainant in the case, said: “When I was returning home from a shop around 10pm, I saw my younger brother and sister crying. They were also injured. My sister told me that father had killed mother with a spade and ran away. I went to the room and found my mother on the floor, bleeding profusely.”

A minor daughter of the couple told the court: “My father did not stop, and kept hitting my mother; there was blood in the entire room. Later, my brother Arham came home, and I told him about the entire incident.”

Eighteen-year-old Mehak, another daughter of the couple, told the court that upon witnessing the attack, she took her younger siblings outside, but her six-year-old brother suffered injuries, as he was sleeping next to his mother when the attack started.

“The witnesses produced by the prosecution are natural and their presence at the scene of crime is proved in all respect. And, the statements of witnesses Arham, the complainant in the case, Arshi, Mehak, Ayaan, Naushad and Shaukeen are completely reliable,” the court headed by additional sessions judge Netrapal Singh said in the order.

Shaukeen is a neighbour and Naushad is the victim’s uncle.