“You are accused of murdering your husband by electrocution. What do you have to say about the post-mortem’s findings?” a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge asked a woman.
Gathering the tools at her disposal – her confidence and years of teaching chemistry – 60-year-old professor Mamta Pathak’s answer took the Bench by surprise. “Sir, it is not possible to differentiate between thermal burn marks and electric burn marks in a post-mortem room,” she said.
Before the division bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Devnarayan Mishra, Mamta, an assistant professor of chemistry, delivered a short master class. She gave a complex explanation about how electric current interacts with tissues, mentioning the deposition of medical metal particles, acid-based separations in lab tests, and chemical reactions that can only be accurately interpreted post-lab analysis. She explained that such observations cannot be made visually.
The extraordinary exchange, which occurred during the hearing of the murder case against Mamta, left legal circles shocked and prompted social media users to term it “one of the most unusual courtroom defenses in recent memory”.
In April 29, 2021 in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur, Mamta had allegedly given her husband Neeraj Pathak, a retired government doctor, a heavy dose of sleeping pills and then electrocuted him to death. She then left for Jhansi with her son.
During police investigation, Mamta claimed she returned from Jhansi on May 1 and found her husband dead. Then, a voice recording of Neeraj claiming his wife tortured him and their driver testifying that she confessed to making a “big mistake”. This turned the case against her.
A strained relationship added context to the case, with investigations finding Mamta had filed a complaint alleging domestic abuse and that her husband drugged her food. She later withdrew the complaint.
A sessions court found her guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced her to life imprisonment. She then moved the the High Court and secured bail last year.
After the last hearing on April 29, the Bench has reserved judgement and Mamta continues to remain on bail.