INDIA. FORMER ARMY MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF WIFE

Mission Suklavaidya, 41, a former army man, was sentenced to death by the Hailakandi district and sessions court, after being convicted of murdering his wife under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Suklavaidya’s accomplice, Uttam Chakra-borty, 42, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict was the fifth death sentence in the state of Assam since Independence and the first to be issued in Barak Valley. The 46-page judgment came after several hearings on the brutal murder of 35-year-old Gita Rani. It was alleged that on April 13, 2005, Suklavaidya had returned to his rented flat in Lala town, 17 km from Hailakandi, in an inebriated state with his friend Uttam. Subjecting his wife, Gita, to physical torture after returning home drunk was a daily affair for Suklavaidya, according to members of the locality. When Suklavaidya returned that night, Gita was feeding their four-year-old son Marjon in the bedroom. She was eight months pregnant at the time. Suklavaidya and Uttam entered the room and strangled her with a piece of electric wire. Suklavaidya also cut open his wife’s abdomen and brought out the foetus. He then set the body on fire outside the house.