Meerut: In the second capital punishment sentence handed down in the city in just two days, a Meerut court on Friday awarded death penalty to a 28-year-old woman and her 20-year-old lover for murdering her husband and attempting to pass off the killing as a snakebite.
Investigation revealed that Amar Deep had purchased the snake from a snake charmer for ₹1,000 to stage the crime scene. During the trial, the prosecution presented 12 witnesses, including the snake charmer. The judge observed that the victim was targeted while he was asleep so that his cries for help would not alert neighbours, emphasising that the convicts systematically exploited the victim’s trust without showing any restraint.
The FIR was originally lodged by the victim’s brother, Monu, after the autopsy findings confirmed foul play. Citing the calculated nature of the crime, ADGC Maqsood noted that the court weighed the premeditation, the breach of trust, and the brutal execution in deciding the penalty. The tragedy leaves behind three young children: six-year-old Aniket, four-year-old Anu, and two-and-a-half-year-old Gori. Following Amit’s death, their grandmother, Munesh Devi, assumed full responsibility for the children’s upbringing and education. Struggling to meet their daily needs with severely limited financial resources, Munesh expressed that the presence of her young grandchildren serves as a constant reminder of her late son.
Additional sessions judge Jayveer Singh Nagar (ADJ-12) delivered the sentence against Ravita Kashyap and Amar Deep, both residents of Akbarpur Sadat village, following their conviction on Oct 7 for the murder of 31-year-old Amit Kashyap.
The ruling follows another death sentence pronounced just two days prior by a Meerut court in the sensational “blue drum” murder case. The court observed that by committing the heinous crime, the accused had “shredded the principles of Sati Savitri mentioned in the Mahabharata, who had snatched her husband’s life from the jaws of death, and hence deserved nothing less than a death sentence. ”, according to additional district govt counsel (ADGC) Farzana Maqsood. During the sentencing, the court invoked the Mahabharata to highlight the gravity of the betrayal.