An Indian court has sentenced a man to death and ordered him to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 for killing his wife by setting her on fire.
The shocking case was heard at the Additional District and Sessions Court in Vallabhnagar, Udaipur, where the judge described the act as a crime against humanity.
The man, identified as Kishandas, had a history of mocking his wife, Laxmi, for her skin tone. According to reports, he tricked her into applying a chemical, telling her it would make her skin fairer.
Instead, he used it as part of his plan to kill her. Judge Rahul Chaudhary said such a brutal crime was unimaginable in any decent and civilised society.
The incident happened on June 24, 2017, in Navaniya village. Despite suspecting the chemical had a strange acidic smell, Laxmi trusted her husband and applied it to her body.
Soon after, Kishandas lit an incense stick and set her ablaze. He even locked the room from the inside to stop her from escaping.
Badly burned, Laxmi managed to run out screaming, but the damage was already done. Her in-laws rushed her to the hospital, yet she succumbed to her injuries a few days later.
The court condemned the act as extremely rare, shocking, and deeply disturbing, saying it was not just a domestic crime but one that shook the conscience of society.
Public prosecutor Dinesh Paliwal presented 14 witnesses and 36 documents that showed Kishandas had constantly humiliated Laxmi for her appearance, leading to the tragic act.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence was Laxmi’s dying declaration. She revealed how her husband repeatedly insulted her for her skin colour, mocked her as unworthy, locked her inside the room, and then set her on fire.
The court ruled that Kishandas’s actions showed a cruel and dangerous mindset. The judgment emphasised that his behaviour was not only an attack on his wife but also on humanity as a whole.
By targeting her over her skin colour and treating her with such brutality, he violated the trust of marriage and exposed the deep prejudices still present in society.
