As wife retracts murder attempt charge, UT cop, colleague acquitted

Additional district and sessions judge Preeti Sahni on Thursday acquitted two UT cops, after the victim, wife of one of the accused, retracted from the allegations against them of trying to kill her.

The order comes as a major respite to constable Rajesh Kumar and his alleged paramour constable Niharika, who were arrested in last October for attempting to murder Santosh Devi, Rajesh's wife in August 2012. The duo had been behind bars ever since their arrest.

In her complaint, Santosh had alleged that her husband owing to illicit relations with his colleague Niharika tried to kill her on August 18, 2012, after pushing her in the Ganga river.

Paving way for the acquittal, Santosh backtracked from her allegations in the court on May 16 and claimed that “the FIR was registered owing to a misunderstanding, nobody pushed me. In fact, I had slipped and accidentally fallen into the Ganga in Haridwar. He (Rajesh) never intended to kill me, it was just an accidental slip.”

However, while testifying before the court, Santosh even denied that Rajesh or Niharika had any kind of relation, which she had earlier alleged was the motive to attempt to kill her. Though she admitted that she along with her husband and Niharika had gone to Haridwar in August 2012.

Santosh statement before the court corroborated the claims of her husband who had said that she died after falling into the Ganga in Haridwar “accidentally”.

First Published: May 23, 2013 21:38 IST