Guttedar murder case: HC upholds verdict

BANGALORE: The decade-old Ashok Guttedar murder case was put to rest on Friday when a vacation bench of the High Court upheld the order of a lower court and sentenced Ashok’s wife Padmavathi and her lover Subhash Patil, a native of Gulbarga, to life imprisonment.Pronouncing the order which was reserved way back in 2009, the division bench comprising Justices Manjula Chellur and K N Keshavanarayan dismissed the appeal filed by two accused challenging a lower court order dated February 15, 2006, which awarded them life imprisonment.The appellants had submitted that there was no direct evidence to prove their involvement in the crime and they were arrested based on a telephone conversation. The duo had appealed to the court to reconsider the verdict as they were jailed since 2001. Ashok, a liquor contractor, was shot dead while he was asleep at his in-laws’ place in the city at Mahalakshmipuram.