13 April,2011 04:06 PM IST | | PTI
An Indian-Australian woman, accused of burning her husband's penis to stop him cheating, today escaped jail with the judge observing that the crime had been carried out in "momentary anger" and suspended her six year sentence.
Rajini Narayan, 46, walked free from the court house after the Supreme Court judge John Sulan suspended her six-year sentence for burning her husband to death in December 2008 after confronting him about his affair.
In her submission before the court, Narayan said she had only planned to burn the tip of her husband's penis, after coming to know that he was having an affair and had even told him so.
But Satish, to whom she had been married for two decades, continued to subject her to physical and verbal abuse and had turned his back on her. The jury cleared Narayan for murder but found her guilty of manslaughter.
The judge took the unusual step of suspending the sentence saying the woman had already suffered, but ordered her to be under supervision of the authorities.
"The killing was due to momentary anger and muddled thinking and Narayan was truly remorseful for her actions," the judge said.
"Although it is often said that a suspended sentence is not a sentence at all, it's a real sentence and can be brought into effect if there is a failure to comply with specified conditions," the judge warned her.
