Ponda man charged with murder for killing wife last year

Panaji: A Ponda court directed murder charges to be framed against 34-year-old Chetan Gaonakar for allegedly murdering his wife while she was sleeping in Ponda in May last year. The court stated that there was prima facie material raising a strong and grave suspicion that Gaonakar allegedly committed the murder of his wife in a pre-planned manner.The court agreed with public prosecutor Rajaram Dessai, who relied on prima facie statements of the parents and sister of the accused, stating that he made a similar confession of the crime to them as he did to the police. He informed them about the strained relationship between him and his wife and how he ended it all by killing her. The court stated that the forensic reports prima facie supported the prosecution's case of murder.Advocate Mark Valadares, representing the accused, told the court that it was not a case of murder, but of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, claiming that the accused was deprived of self-control due to prolonged strained relations and, in a fit of rage, committed the offence. Valadares argued that, other than the extra-judicial confession, there was no other evidence in the chargesheet to support the prosecution's case, as all the other evidence was circumstantial.

Rebutting the claim, Dessai submitted that, apart from telling the police how and why he committed the murder of his wife, the accused also made a similar confession to his parents, who, in their respective statements, confirmed that the offence was pre-planned on account of the strained relationship between the couple.