The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a Solapur resident convicted of allegedly strangulating his wife with a langot (loincloth) in 2013. The court has suspended his sentence pending hearing on appeal.
Deepak Madhukar Jadhav was found guilty of killing his wife, Vidya, whom he had married in April 2012. Initially treated well, Vidya was soon subjected to harassment by her husband and in-laws, who doubted her character and pressured her for not conceiving a child. She confided in her family about the threats and mistreatment, but despite their intervention, the harassment continued.
On October 27, 2013, Deepak informed Vidya’s father that she had fainted and stopped breathing. However, a postmortem revealed that she had been strangled, leading to a case against Deepak and his family.
During the trial, the court relied on circumstantial evidence to convict Deepak. It was established that Vidya was last seen alive with him, and a langot used for strangulation was recovered from their home. The medical officer confirmed that the injuries on Vidya’s neck were consistent with strangulation.
While the trial court sentenced Deepak to life imprisonment under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, it acquitted his family members due to a lack of evidence linking them to the crime. The trial court acquitted them all from the charges of cruelty.
Deepak later challenged his conviction before the High Court. His lawyer, Satyavrat Joshi, argued that the trial judge had dismissed the allegations of cruelty against all accused, including Deepak, and that the only evidence against him was the recovery of the langot. He also highlighted that Deepak had already spent over 11 years in jail and that his appeal, pending since 2016, was unlikely to be heard soon.
Considering his prolonged incarceration, a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Neela Gokhale suspended Deepak’s sentence and granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs25,000. He has been directed to report to the trial court every four months until his appeal is decided.
“If there are two consecutive defaults in appearing before the trial court, the judge shall report to the High Court, and the prosecution may seek cancellation of bail,” the bench ruled.
