India: Lawyer sentenced to life in prison for strangling her husband with mobile charger in Kolkata

A lawyer, Anindita Pal, was sentenced to life imprisonment for strangling her husband Rajat Dey to death with a mobile phone charger. The verdict came on Wednesday from a fast track court in the Indian state of West Bengal. Both Pal and Dey were practising as lawyers at the Calcutta High Court, reportedly.

According to the local news reports, the prosecution claimed that the couple were having a strained relationship. During the trial, the prosecution had also claimed that on the intervening night of November 24 and 25, 2018, Pal strangled her husband, Dey, with the wire of a mobile phone charger at their New Town flat near Kolkata.

Special public prosecutor Bibhas Chatterjee appealed for the capital punishment to Pal, claiming that it was a premeditated murder.

Additional district and sessions judge Sujit Kumar Jha, who on Monday convicted Pal for the murder of her husband, sentenced her to life term and a fine of Rs10,000 (Dh500). The court, however, sentenced her to life imprisonment since she has a three-year-old child, and also because there was no eyewitness and the conviction was based on circumstantial evidence. The court also found her guilty of causing the disappearance of evidence and sentenced her to one year in prison for that. Both the sentences will run concurrently as per the verdict. As she was being taken to the prison van from the courtroom, Pal said to news channels that she was framed, and she will fight till the “last drop of blood”.

Pal’s lawyer Pinak Mitra claimed that she was sleeping in another room when she heard a sound from Rajat’s room and found him hanging after rushing there. Dey’s father had lodged a First Information Report alleging that Pal had killed his son and subsequently she was arrested on November 29 by the police, following interrogation.