Allahabad High Court sentences man to life for murdering wife under the pretext of “driving out a ghost”

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday convicted 71-year-old Awadhesh Kumar and his accomplice Mata Prasad for strangling Kumar’s wife in 1982 under the pretext of “driving out a ghost”. The court described the case as a shocking example of blind faith used to cover a murder. After a 43-year-long legal battle, a division bench of Justices Rajiv Gupta and Harvir Singh sentenced both to life imprisonment, overturning a 1984 trial court acquittal, a TOI report stated.

Court highlights blind faith as motive

The court also imposed three-year sentences under IPC Section 201 for destroying evidence, saying the sentences will run concurrently. Two other accused had died while the Uttar Pradesh government’s appeal was pending.

Prosecutors said Kumar killed his 23-year-old wife Kusuma Devi on August 6, 1982, after being caught in an illicit relationship with his younger brother’s wife. Kumar, then 28, along with Prasad and two others, pinned Kusuma down and throttled her, claiming they were exorcising a ghost. Witnesses said her body was cremated the same night to conceal the crime.

Calling the killing “a classic case of blind faith”, the court said:

“Such unfortunate realities are still prevalent in remote areas in different cultures based on superstition and belief, just to bring good fortune and to appease the gods. This shocks the conscience of civilized society and is to be condemned by one and all, to curb such social evils.”

Awadhesh Kumar and Mata Prasad have been ordered to surrender within two weeks. The court also fined each Rs 20,000 for murder and Rs 5,000 for destroying evidence.