E-Paper
Life sentence for Dhakoli man who axed wife to death
Son had found the woman’s body in the toilet of their Dhakoli house after noticing her abrupt disappearance in October 2020
An interior decorator who axed his wife to death at their house in Dhakoli in October 2020 will spend the rest of his life in jail, a Mohali court has ruled.
Sentencing Ashok Kumar, a resident of Basant Vihar, Phase 2, Dhakoli, to life imprisonment, the court of additional sessions judge Baljinder Singh Sra also slapped a fine of ₹10,000 on him.
The victim, Sudesh Kumari, a homemaker, was found in a pool of blood in a toilet by the couple’s son, Rubal Saini, then a final-year BA student who also worked part-time at a call centre in Zirakpur. The family also includes Rubal’s younger brother, Kaushal Saini, and their grandfather.
According to case files, on the morning of October 15, 2020, before leaving for work, Rubal noticed his father fetching milk and asked about his mother’s whereabouts. Ashok claimed that Sudesh had left for Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to attend to her ailing sister Suresh.
Suspicious, Rubal called his mother several times but received no response. He then checked with his cousin, Vicky, who denied that his mother, Suresh, was ill. Frantic, Rubal returned home from work and tried calling his mother again, but still received no answer. He then noticed the toilet next to the living room locked.
Acting on impulse, Rubal broke open the door, only to find his mother lying unconscious, with blood pooled around her. When confronted, Ashok admitted to killing his wife and begged Rubal not to call the police.
However, a shaken Rubal contacted his friend Parvinder Singh, who rushed to the scene and alerted the police. Ashok managed to flee then, but was captured on October 18, 2020.
During interrogation, Ashok confessed to killing his wife with an axe and moving her body to the toilet. Sudesh had suffered multiple gashes, including fatal injuries to the neck.
As the trial got underway, Rubal testified that his father had been having an illicit relationship with a woman from Baltana and often harassed his mother over trivial matters.
“The crime took place within the family home, with the primary witnesses being the couple’s children. The accused was the last person seen with the deceased. A history of strained relations between the couple provides a strong motive for the crime. His attempt to flee upon the police being informed further suggests culpability,” observed the Mohali court while convicting the accused.
Meanwhile, not finding the case fit for death penalty, the court said, “On consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors obtainable in the case, this court is of the considered view that the facts of the present case do not fall within the category of rarest of rare cases. In the facts and circumstances of the case, the imposition of an extreme penalty of death sentence does not commend this court.”
