18 years on, hubby and mother-in-law awarded life term for woman’s murder

Lucknow: In a long-pending dowry death case, a court in Ambedkar Nagar on Wednesday awarded life sentence to the husband and mother-in-law of a woman who was murdered 18 years ago.The court of Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track-I) Parvind Kumar convicted Anil Rajbhar, 50, and his mother Gena Devi, 70, for the murder of Sushila, 30. The court, however, acquitted co-accused Nandlal, Govardhan and Sheela Devi due to lack of sufficient evidence.According to the prosecution, Ram Rajbhar had lodged a police complaint on June 11, 2008, alleging that his daughter Sushila was regularly harassed and assaulted by her husband Anil Rajbhar, brothers-in-law Nandlal and Govardhan, mother-in-law Gena Devi, and sister-in-law Sheela Devi over their demand for a motorcycle as dowry. In his complaint, Ram alleged that his daughter was strangled by her husband and in-laws.Police probe found the charges true and the accused were arrested and a chargesheet against them was filed. During the trial, the court examined witness testimonies, postmortem findings and other evidence presented by the prosecution.After evaluating the evidence, the court held Anil Rajbhar and Gena Devi guilty of the murder and sentenced them.