Husband gets 10 years' jail, his parents 7, for burning wife to death in Uttar Pradesh

Ballia, Uttar Pradesh: A local court here has sentenced a man to 10 years' jail, his mother and father to seven years, for killing his wife over dowry in 2018, six years after their wedding, police said on Friday.

Ballia Superintendent of Police Vikrant Veer said that Additional District Judge Ravi Kiran Singh's court found Dharmendra Verma, the husband, Bechan Prasad Verma, his father, and Manju Devi, his mother, guilty of plotting the murder and carrying it out.

In addition to the jail term, each convict was fined with Rs 3,000, the police officer said.

The case was initiated by Krishna Singh, a resident of Buxar district in Bihar, whose daughter Shashikala was married to Dharmendra Verma of Kopwa Bahadurpur village in February 2012.

In 2018, on the intervening night of September 13-14, Shashikala was doused with kerosene and set on fire allegedly over a dowry demand.

Her family was informed about the incident five days later.

Krishna Singh lodged a complaint at the Fefna Police Station and an FIR was lodged under sections 304B (committing dowry death) and 498 (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Dowry Prohibition Act.

After completing the investigation, police filed a charge sheet against the three accused in the court, leading to their conviction and sentencing.