The Delhi High Court acquitted Sunil Kumar Mandal,...

The Delhi High Court acquitted Sunil Kumar Mandal, a man who had been sentenced to death by an Additional Sessions Court on November 2, 2001, for burning his wife for dowry. Mandal had been accused of burning his wife Anita, 18, at her father's home in Mayapuri when she refused to get him Rs 5,000 from her parents. Mandal had married Anita in 1999. She went to her parental home a few days later following an argument. About a month later, Mandal visited her and demanded Rs 5,000 but Anita said they would discuss the matter in the morning. The accused then allegedly set her on fire. Anita sustained 100 per cent burns and died at the Safdarjung Hospital on July 1, 1999. In a statement given to the sub-divisional magistrate, she said her husband had burnt her. The high court judges Pradeep Nandrajog and Usha Mehra, however, acquitted Mandal stating he had been arrested from a friend's house in Mayapuri and not from the scene of the crime.