Who is Mamta Pathak? Former chemistry professor gets life term for murdering husband by...

The life sentence of Mamta Pathak, a former chemistry professor, has been upheld by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Mamta, aged 65, was convicted in 2022 of murdering her husband, Dr. Neeraj Pathak. A bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and Devnarayan Mishra rejected her appeal, ruling that she killed her husband who was a retired government doctor. The case grabbed widespread attention after a video of Mamta defending herself in the courtroom went viral online. But, who is Mamta Pathak?

What is Mamta Pathak's case?
In April 2021, Dr. Neeraj was found dead at his house in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. An autopsy ruled the cause of his death as electrocution. Police reportedly grew suspicious about Mamta due to her behaviour on the day of her husband's death. Mamta, a professor of chemistry at a local government college, was arrested soon after and booked for murder. In June 2022, the Chhatarpur district court found Mamta guilty of killing her husband and handed her life imprisonment, a ruling she appealed in the High Court.

Why did Mamta's court video go viral?
In the High Court, Mamta herself presented her arguments, saying the case was based on circumstantial evidence and there were no eyewitnesses or direct evidence. A video of her challenging the post-mortem report during a court hearing was widely circulated on social media. In the video, Mamta contends it is "not possible to differentiate between thermal and electric burn marks during a post-mortem." Justice Vivek Agrawal then asks her, "Are you a chemistry professor?" to which she replies "yes," adding: "I don’t know how the post-mortem has said this is an electric burn mark." The Madhya Pradesh High Court has now upheld Mamta's earlier conviction, ruling that she was not on good terms with her husband. The court concluded that Mamta tortured her husband to death by giving him an antipsychotic drug, followed by an electric shock.