3 min readPuneUpdated: May 7, 2026 07:17 PM IST
A Pune court has awarded life imprisonment to a man who murdered his wife and then was seen walking with her head in one hand and an axe in the other 11 years ago.
Additional Sessions Judge Sumit Joshi passed the order in this regard Tuesday.
The accused, identified as Ramchandra Sheu Chavan, was 63 at the time of the crime. According to the police, on October 9, 2015, the accused reportedly had a heated argument with his wife, Sonabai, then around 55. He allegedly locked his daughter-in-law, Sunita, and two minor grandsons in the house and attacked Sonabai with an axe.
The police said he chopped off the victim’s head, picked up the axe, and started walking on the streets of Katraj. They said the accused killed his wife, suspecting her of having an affair with a family member.
Sunita lodged the First Information Report (FIR) against him at the Bharati Vidyapeeth Police Station. The police booked him under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 201, 342, and 498-A, and sections of the Maharashtra Police Act as well.
On January 1, 2026, the police filed a chargesheet against the accused, who had no prior criminal record, before the court in Pune. The accused pleaded not guilty before the court, saying he did not murder his wife.
During the trial, the prosecution lawyer, Premkumar Agarwal, examined 24 witnesses, including the medical officer and investigation officer, Shekhar Shinde.
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The court observed that complainant Sunita was a ‘star witness’, who had seen the accused assaulting her mother-in-law. Sunita told the court that she shouted and requested the accused to leave her mother-in-law. But the convict had locked her along with her children, when “she heard some noise of cutting.”
A woman witness running a tea stall, who saw the accused walking with his wife’s head, told the court that she asked him, “Anna, kuthe bakru kaple (Anna, have you slaughtered a goat)?” The accused replied to her that he had killed his wife. The woman stated that she was frightened, as she saw blood coming out of the severed head.
Another important witness, a nine-year-old schoolgirl who was standing near the crime scene while waiting for her school bus, identified the accused in court.
A witness, who had later shifted to a foreign country for work, came back for his testimony. The person who had recorded a video of the accused walking with his wife’s chopped head was also examined before the court.
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Defence lawyer Sangram Kolhatkar argued that the prosecution had not proved the “chain of events” and failed to bring on record the motive behind the alleged crime. He also argued that the CCTV footage and the video cannot be relied upon to convict the accused.
The court stated that the prosecution could not establish that the accused had a suspicion about his wife’s character. But the court also observed that all the evidence on record, from eyewitnesses to forensic reports, established the accused’s guilt.
The court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment and said that the accused, who has been in jail since October 9, 2015, is entitled to set off for this period.
