TNN | Oct 7, 2011, 05.23AM IST
PUNE: Sheetal Sonawane of Wadgaon Maval, who died of burn injuries in 2007, got justice on Thursday when additional sessions judge Shirish Gadge sentenced her husband and her in-laws to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 2,000 each. The prosecution proved that the trio was harassing Sheetal for a long time and they eventually killed her because she gave birth to a girl child.The victim's husband, Sachin Sonawane, 25, his father Prakash, 57, and his mother Ranjana, 55, were further sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1,000 each for destroying evidence.
Sheetal of Kopra village in Latur district, had married Sachin Sonawane, of Wadgaon Maval, in 2005. A year after marriage, Sheetal delivered a girl child. Unhappy that she did not give them a boy, Sheetal's husband and his parents subjected her to severe ill-treatment, the prosecution said.
Sheetal had told her brother Nagesh Dhale about the harassment. Two months prior to the incident, Sheetal went to Dhale and urged him not to send her back because she feared for her life. But Dhale convinced her to goback.
On February 11, 2007, Dhale got a phone call from Sachin Sonawane saying that his sister was admitted at a private hospital in Pune for burn injuries. By the time Dhale and others reached Pune, Sheetal had died. Sachin told them that Sheetal had set herself ablaze.
The post-mortem, however, showed that Sheetal's body was half burnt. Tests further revealed that she was hit on the head with a hard object before being set ablaze. Five witnesses were examined, but Dhale turned hostile during examination. Additional public prosecutor Chandrakiran Salvi relied on medical evidence to prove that the accused had indeed hit Sheetal on her head, set her afire and destroyed evidence.
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