HC gives lifer to man for killing wife

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, Feb. 7: The AP High Court on Monday sentenced to life imprisonment a private medical practitioner who killed his wife.

A division bench comprising Justice V. Eswaraiah and Justice Suri Appa Rao gave the order while allowing an appeal filed by the state government challenging the acquittal by a sessions court of East Godavari district.

According to the prosecution, Akella Suryanarayana Murthy of Kadiyaplanka, East Godavari district, had a strained relationship with his wife Bramarambha. She had been staying away from him. He was threatening her to mend her ways and join him or give him divorce. When she did not yield, he decided to kill her.

The accused stabbed her to death on Jan 14, 2002 when she was at her work place at Sampathnagaram of the district. The lower court acquitted him after finding that there were contradictions in the versions of witnesses.

The bench felt that in the sequence of events, small contradictions in the statements of witness cannot be interpreted to the benefit of the accused. The bench found the accused as guilty and awarded life imprisonment.

Order on Osmania professor stayed

The AP High Court on Monday granted stay on an order passed by the AP Administrative Tribunal, which directed the state government to consider Dr Jayabhaskar Reddy for promotion to the post of Professor of Pathology in Osmania Medical College. A division bench comprising Justice Ghulam Mohammed and Justice K.G. Shankar was dealing with a petition filed by Dr Ezil Arasi, associate professor of pathology of the college, challenging the order of the tribunal. Mr K. Lakshmi Narasimha, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that Dr Jayabhaskar Reddy was chargesheeted for his unauthorised absence of duty for nearly nine years.

He said an inquiry was conducted wherein the charges were proved and a showcause notice was issued to him as to why major penalty should not be imposed on him. He brought to the notice of the court that the government had recently announced a policy to remove the doctors, who have been unauthorisedly absent for more than one year. The bench while granting interim orders directed the authorities to file their counters.