Scientific defence falls flat, Chemistry Professor gets life term For husband's murder

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.The decision, delivered by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in a detailed 97-page judgment, has not only reaffirmed the district court's earlier ruling but also sparked widespread public interest due to the unusual nature of the case and the woman at its centre. Mamta Pathak, a government college Chemistry lecturer in Chhattarpur, 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.  In 2021, Dr Pathak died under mysterious circumstances at their home. The police initially recorded the death as being caused by electric shock. However, forensic and post-mortem findings raised doubts, and investigators later filed murder charges against Mamta.A district court, relying on medical reports and other evidence, sentenced her to life imprisonment.She appealed against the district court's decision in the Jabalpur bench of the High Court and decided to represent herself in the court.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. 

In video: A chemistry professor argues her own case before the MP High Court. She has been accused of murdering her husband by electrocution.

Case name: Mamta Pathak vs State of Madhya Pradesh pic.twitter.com/xPIWYapbLR

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The court, after a lengthy deliberation, observed that the evidence and circumstances pointed clearly towards guilt. Referring to relevant Supreme Court judgments and judicial precedent, the bench ruled the crime to be grave in nature and directed Mamta Pathak to surrender immediately.