Agra: A fast-track court in Firozabad has sentenced a 50-year-old man to life imprisonment for setting his wife ablaze over a dowry demand in 2013, relying primarily on the victim’s second dying declaration to secure the conviction.
Additional district and sessions judge (Fast Track Court-2) Vimal Verma found Dharmendra Kumar, alias Pinky, guilty of murder and imposed a fine of ₹20,000. Following the incident, an FIR was registered at Narkhi police station under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 498A (cruelty by husband or in-laws), leading to the arrest of the accused. In her initial statement, recorded by a Naib Tehsildar in Firozabad on May 31, Rajni had termed the incident an accident.
The victim, Rajni, a resident of Nagla Karan Singh, had married Dharmendra—a glass industry worker from Kotla village under Narkhi police station limits—around five years prior to the incident, according to additional district govt counsel (ADGC) Ajay Yadav. However, in a second declaration recorded by an executive magistrate at Safdarjung Hospital on June 5, she directly accused her husband, stating that Dharmendra had quarrelled with her after consuming alcohol and deliberately set her on fire “with the intention to kill her. ” After evaluating both statements alongside medical records and the postmortem report, the court observed that the nature of the burn injuries was inconsistent with an accidental fire. In default of payment, the convict will undergo an additional month in jail. Her husband and in-laws allegedly harassed her over a demand for a motorcycle as additional dowry. Grounding its verdict on the second declaration, the court convicted Dharmendra of murder under the alternative charge, while acquitting him of charges under IPC Section 304B (dowry death) and the Dowry Prohibition Act.
During the trial, two conflicting dying declarations were presented before the court.
On May 31, 2013, Dharmendra and his family members allegedly poured kerosene on Rajni and set her on fire. Suffering from 50% burn injuries, she was initially rushed from Firozabad to Agra before being transferred to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, where she succumbed during treatment on June 7, 2013.