MP HC upholds life term of ex-chemistry professor for murder of doctor husband by electrocution

Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has upheld the life imprisonment of a former chemistry professor for the murder of her doctor husband by electrocution in Chhatarpur district of the state in 2021.

A division bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and Devnarayan Mishra on Tuesday upheld the life imprisonment of Mamta Pathak.

Sixty-five-year-old Dr Neeraj Pathak, posted in Chhatarpur District Hospital, died on April 29, 2021 at his house in Loknathpuram Colony with electricity burn marks detected at multiple places on the body.

The HC said the entire chain of circumstances indicates that the wife first made the husband unconscious by giving him sedatives and later killed him by electrocution.

The division bench, while cancelling the temporary suspension given on the sentence earlier, directed the accused to immediately surrender in the trial court to serve the remaining period of imprisonment.

In April this year, the high court had reserved its decision after hearing the arguments of all the parties.

At the time of the incident, his wife Mamta Pathak was also there She had come to live with him only 10 months prior to his death, the prosecution said.

According to the HC, no other person came from outside on the day of the incident, the prosecution said.

The relationship between the couple was strained as she would often argue about her husband's affair with some woman.

Before 12 noon on the day of the incident, Dr Neeraj called one of his relatives and told that his wife was torturing him, not giving him food and kept him locked inside the bathroom. He also talked about the head injury.

After this, the relative contacted the police and the doctor was taken out of the bathroom.

The relative gave the recording of this conversation to the police and also recorded a statement in the court.

A court in Chhatarpur convicted Mamta Pathak on the basis of the circumstantial evidence and sentenced her to life imprisonment. But she filed an appeal in the high court against the verdict.

While presenting her case in the high court in April this year, the former chemistry professor argued that the cause of the death in the post-mortem report was stated to be electric shock.

The burn marks found on the body of the deceased were of both types - electric and thermal, but their technical investigation was not done, she told the court.

Safety equipment like MCB and RCCB were installed in the house, due to which death due to short circuit or current was not possible. Despite this, neither the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team nor any electrical expert was sent to the house to investigate, she argued in the court.

During the initial hearing, she argued the case on her own, but later he lawyers presented her side in the court.

In its 97-page order, the division bench upheld her life imprisonment, saying the entire chain of circumstantial evidence was interconnected.