A man was convicted by a fast court on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district after 12 years for killing his wife. The court of Additional Sessions Judge (fast track), Budgam, held Mushtaq Ahmad Pandith alias Bilal guilty of murdering his wife Sameera Jan in May 2011 in their matrimonial house in Budgam district's Kralpora.
"Even though opportunity was provided to accused, who has taken the defence of not being present on the spot on the day of occurrence has not been able to provide any circumstance to show that accused was not present on spot on the fateful day," Judge Aijaz Ahmad Khan said in his 90-page order. Mushtaq Ahmed Pandith was held guilty under Section 302 of RPC.
All crimes were tried under the Ranbir Penal Code, or RPC, equivalent of the Indian Penal Code, in Jammu and Kashmir before the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories in 2019. According to the case details, Sameera Jan was found dead in her husband's house on May 1, 2011, with a knife stabbed into her back. Her husband absconded soon after the crime.
He was found to have fled to Delhi after the crime and then moved to Jammu where he was arrested on May 13, 2011. The court will start hearing the arguments on sentencing of the convict on November 23.
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