NEW DELHI – A court in India’s capital New Delhi has sentenced the host of a popular TV crime series to life in jail for murdering his wife 17 years ago.
Former television producer Suhaib Ilyasi, host of the once popular 90s television serial ‘India’s Most Wanted’, was found to have stabbed his wife Anju Ilyasi to death in 2000.
He said she had killed herself, but the charges against him accused him of torturing her to extract more dowry money from her family, the Hindustan Times reported.
Anju was found dead in her east Delhi residence with multiple stab injuries in January, 2000.
Her death was treated as a suicide until her mother demanded that Ilyasi be tried for murder.
As a part of the sentence, additional sessions judge SK Malhotra also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Suhaib and ordered that Rs 10 lakh compensation be paid to Anju’s parents.
Ilyasi’s lawyer has said he will appeal against the conviction.
Giving a dowry has been illegal in India since 1961, but it still takes place in most arranged marriages.
Thousands of women are killed in India every year by their husband’s families for bringing in insufficient dowries.
