Aurangabad: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday overturned the judgment of a lower court and acquitted a man who was convicted on charges of burning his wife to death and sentenced to life imprisonment.The division bench of the high court — comprising justices SS Shinde and SM Gavhane — ruled: "The trial court has not appreciated the entire evidence brought on record in its proper perspective and reached to a wrong conclusion. The findings recorded by the trial court are not in consonance with the evidence brought on record."The 27-year-old accused — identified as Arjun Uddhav Arbad, a farmer by profession and hailing from Suralegaon of Georai in Beed district — was sentenced to rigrous imprisonment on June 26, 2013 and also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 for burning his wife Sarlabai to death. The deceased woman had sustained 92% burn injuries.The couple had married around two years before the incident took place on September 1, 2011. The woman died while undergoing treatment at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on September 9, 2011.As per the complaint, the accused allegedly had set his wife on fire as she did not cook food for him. Following the incident, Arjun and his mother were slapped with sections 498A (Husband or in-laws of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).During the trial, the court acquitted the accused's mother of all charges. It also acquitted Arbad of all charges except murder. Lawyer Satej Jadhav, while representing the accused, contested that during the course of trial, the court acquitted the accused's mother citing lack of evidence, but the considering the same set of evidence the trial court convicted the accused farmer.The lawyer also pointed out that the key witness in the case has contradicted the version of the police. He also brought to the notice of the court that the accused Arjun was heading to another place along with his friend, when he received a call about the alleged incident, but the trial court refused to consider this contention.The lawyer also pointed out before the HC that as there was no eye witness to the incident, the case was purely based on circumstantial evidence and the sole dying declaration of the deceased woman that too recorded by the investigating officer.The division bench observed that the trial court has not believed the oral testimony of the prosecution witnesses so far as the charges under section murder, domestic violence and voluntarily causing hurt against second accused and acquitted him from the said offences.Acquitting the accused, the division bench observed that even the appellant (accused) is acquitted from the offence punishable under section 498A (domestic violence). However, on the same set of evidence convicted the accused for the offence punishable under section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

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