Court acquits man charged with murdering lover`s husband

New Delhi: A man accused of killing his lover`s husband has been acquitted by a Delhi court on the ground that the prosecution has failed to prove his motive to murder the victim.

Additional Sessions Judge TR Naval absolved Udaiveer Singh of the charges of shooting victim Ram Sumer, a BSES employee, saying that police could not prove that the accused had made a confession of his crime to the victim`s wife. "The prosecution could not prove the motive of accused to commit murder of the victim. There was no enmity or animosity in between the parties and there was no reason or occasion for the accused to commit murder of Sumer," the judge said. The court directed the jail superintendent to release Singh, who was in judicial custody. Police told the court that Singh, who was a neighbour of the victim, had developed friendly relations with Sumer`s wife. He used to come to Sumer`s house in his absence and started having physical relations with his wife, police said. On May 31, 2005, when Sumer`s wife along with their children had gone to attend a wedding, Singh came to the victim`s New Ashok Nagar house and shot him with a pistol. The prosecutor argued that the accused had killed Sumer to marry his wife and also to grab his property. "The accused, who was paramour of the victim`s wife, told his intention to kill Sumer and after killing him, Singh informed the woman on telephone about her husband`s killing," he argued. The court, however, said that prosecution has failed to prove that Singh had committed the murder or the firearm was recovered upon his disclosure statement. The accused had claimed innocence saying that he had gone to Badarpur on the day of incident to attend some function. PTI