INDIA: CLERIC GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR KILLING WIFE

a former cleric has been sentenced to death by a West Bengal court in India for killing his pregnant wife in 2005. Abdul Hannan, 26, the imam (cleric) of Ziapara village in South Dinajpur district, was given the death sentence by the additional district and sessions judge of Buniyadpur fast track court. According to local reports, Hannan married 19 year old Maher Nigar Begum in 2005. But when Maher got pregnant within one month of their marriage, he started suspecting her character. Hannan killed Maher by slitting her throat with a razor and dumped her body at the roadside, changed his blood-splattered clothes and went to a mosque to offer prayers. Villagers found Maher's body two days later and informed the police. Initially the police were hesitant to take action against Hannan since he was a cleric, but he was arrested when villagers found the bloodstained clothes in his house and assaulted him.