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AGRA: A 34-year-old woman, her lover and her lover’s friend were sentenced to life in jail by a court in Agra for murdering her husband after he opposed their relationship. Statements by the couple’s children before the magistrate on their mother’s involvement in an extra-marital affair proved crucial in the case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each of the convicts.The couple’s eldest son, 15 years then, had stated: “My mother is in a two-year affair with a man named Sunil Kumar. Whenever that man visited our place, she used to beat me and my siblings. I saw him and Dharmveer near my house many times. I also alerted my father about them… When my father, an auto driver, used to go out, Sunil used to quietly come and stay in a room with my mom.” His younger siblings – 13 and 8 – made similar claims before the magistrate.ADGC Pradeep Sharma said on February 14, 2019, when Ramveer Singh, 34, went missing from home, his uncle, Tikaram, launched a manhunt. Failing to trace him, Tikaram approached police to file a missing complaint. An FIR was registered two days later against Singh’s wife, Kusuma Devi, then 28, lover Sunil Kumar, 28, and Dharmveer Singh, 32, both auto drivers, under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destroying evidence) at Dauki after Singh’s body was found in a village well. The postmortem report revealed 12 injury marks and death due to coma as a result of anti-mortem injury. Prime suspect Kusuma was thereafter arrested on February 17, and police also found the large stick used to beat her husband to death. A burnt phone was recovered too. The other two accused were held on February 19; chargesheet was filed on May 13 that year.During trial, the accused rejected their involvement in Singh’s murder and attempted to mislead court by trying to project the latter’s proximity to local goons, which led to the killing. However, statements by Kusuma’s kids in favour of their dad nailed the trio. Taking witness testimonies, autopsy findings and police evidence into consideration, additional district and sessions judge Sanjay Lal punished the convicts on Friday.
