Professor gets life term for double murder

Mumbai: A sessions court in Thane district has convicted and sentenced a professor to life imprisonment for killing his wife and minor daughter in July 2012. The court relied on the testimony of professor’s minor son.The accused murdered his wife because she had decided to leave him due to the ill treatment meted out to her. The accused had even tried to commit suicide after the double murder, but he survived.

Sanjay Umbarkar, who was a professor at Annasaheb Jadhav College in Bhiwandi, had denied the allegation that he killed his wife Swati (40) and daughter Atharva (9). He claimed that on July 2, 2012, he was in the toilet of his residence when he heard the commotion and when he came out of toilet an unknown person assaulted him. He claimed that he tried to catch that person, but the assailant attacked him again. He also alleged that another unknown person came out of their bedroom with blood stains on his clothes and attacked Umbarkar.

According to the accused, when he went into the bedroom he saw his wife and daughter in a pool of blood, so he called his brother and informed him about the incident. Umbarkar had also claimed that his son was instigated by his wife’s relatives to file a false complaint against him.

However, sessions judge P.R. Kadam observed that son has given a detailed account of murder.