The Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the life sentence of Chemistry Professor Mamta Pathak for murdering her husband with electric shock. The Court found clear evidence of premeditated murder and rejected all her defenses.
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JABALPUR: In a shocking case that has gained national attention, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has confirmed the life imprisonment of a woman named Mamta Pathak, a government college Chemistry lecturer, who was earlier convicted of murdering her husband Dr. Neeraj Pathak, a Chief Medical Officer, by giving him an electric shock after first drugging him with antipsychotic medication.
The judgment was delivered by a Division Bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Devnarayan Mishra, who agreed with the lower court’s findings and observed that Mamta and her husband did not share a healthy relationship.
The judges ruled that she had tortured and eventually killed him in a brutal and calculated manner.
The Court noted that all the evidence clearly pointed towards her guilt. It stated that every link in the chain of circumstances was complete and left no room for doubt.
“Since all the circumstances in the chain are complete, her guilt is proved beyond all reasonable doubt,”
– said the Court.
Following this conclusion, it passed a strict order:
“The temporary suspension granted by a Coordinate Bench of this Court vide order dated 13.3.2024 shall stand cancelled. The appellant Smt. Mamta Pathak shall immediately surrender before the Trial Court for undergoing the remaining part of the sentence.”
Interestingly, Mamta had herself informed the police about her husband’s death in 2021. However, during the investigation, it was revealed that she was actually responsible for his murder. She was later arrested and convicted by the trial court in 2022.
When the matter reached the High Court, Mamta decided to argue her case herself, without a lawyer. She even presented scientific arguments and challenged the post-mortem findings. A video of her making these submissions in court went viral on social media.
However, the High Court carefully examined all her arguments and rejected them. She claimed that the post-mortem was unreliable because her husband’s mouth was closed, chemical tests were not done, electron microscopy wasn’t used, and the house was insulated. But the judges found these points to be irrelevant or not supported by evidence.
She also argued that her husband had died due to a heart disease and that she was being falsely accused by his relatives, who allegedly wanted to grab his property. The Court firmly rejected these claims, noting that his sons—being his direct heirs—would get the property legally anyway.
On the issue of motive, the Court made serious observations. It said that Mamta was suspected of being unfaithful and had previously treated her husband cruelly. When she tried to show she was a good mother, the Court responded:
“A woman may be a ‘doting mother’ but also a ‘suspecting wife’ at the same time.”
To further analyze her intentions, the judges reviewed photos showing Mamta with her husband and children. But they noted that these were old and irrelevant in understanding her current behavior.
“The photograph showing that the appellant is feeding Dr. Neeraj Pathak or showing her in the company of Dr. Neeraj Pathak and in the company of her children clearly reveals that none of them are of the recent past. Secondly, immediate past and conduct are required to be examined rather than remote incidence to deduce the motive. When tested in the light of recent events then the motive is writ large from the evidence of Dhaniram Ahirwar (PW.2), who has though admitted that 10 months prior, they were living separately but why they were living separately is not explained,” the Court noted.
- Senior Advocate Surendra Singh and Advocate Kapil Pathak appeared for Mamta Pathak.
- The State was represented by Government Advocate Manas Verma.
CASE TITLE:
Mamta Pathak vs The State of Madhya Pradesh.
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