Delhi HC acquits Ilyasi in wife's murder case

New Delhi, Oct 5: The Delhi High Court on Friday acquitted former TV serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court for murdering his wife in 2000.

A bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and Vinod Goel set aside the trial court order of December 16, 2017 and December 20, 2017, wherein Ilyasi was convicted and sentenced to life for stabbing his wife Anju to death.

The bench held that the prosecution had failed to prove his guilt, while allowing the TV anchor's challenge to the trial court's order.

Ilyasi's counsel Rajiv Mohan and Abhimanyu Kampani said that the trial court had reached the conclusion of guilt based on conjectures and that the conviction was not supported by the material on record.

The High Court observed that a report of the five-member medical board contains no specific reasons for the conclusion that the preponderance of evidence in this case points towards 'commission of homicide.'

"In view of the evidence of the medical professionals who comprised the first medical board and in light of the medical literature, this court rejects the plea of the prosecution that the medical evidence unmistakably and conclusively proves that the death was homicidal," the court said.

"The numerous factual errors in the opinion reflect non-application of mind to the relevant material on record. A conclusion based on faulty analysis, erroneous or absent facts and with no cogent reasons does not inspire confidence."

"With there being no matches of the chance prints lifted from the scene of crime with any of the specimen prints of the appellant (Ilyasi), the court fails to appreciate how the forensic reports can help the case of the prosecution to establish that the death was homicidal," the court said.

The court said that the testimonies of some witnesses that Ilyasi had subjected his wife to harassment and cruelty over dowry demand were not believable.

Ilyasi, also editor-in-chief of Bureaucracy Today magazine, had been in trial for the last 18 years following the death of his wife.

Anju died on January 11, 2000 at her Mayur Vihar house. Charges were framed against Ilyasi after his sisters-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture her.

Ilyasi shot to fame after hosting reality TV show "India's Most Wanted".