Chemistry professor who explained chemical reactions to prove innocence in husband's death gets life term

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has sentenced former chemistry professor Mamta Pathak to life imprisonment for the murder of her husband.

Mamta Pathak, who argued her case without a lawyer, was convicted in 2022 for the murder of Dr Neeraj Pathak, a retired government doctor.

Reaffirming the district court’s ruling in the case, the high court delivered the 97-page judgment.

The case has drawn huge public interest as the former chemistry professor was at the centre of it.

Dr Pathak died in 2021 at their home under mysterious circumstances with the police initially recording the death as from electric shock.

Police later filed murder charges against Professor Mamta Pathak after forensic and post-mortem findings raised doubts.

Later a district court based on medical reports and other evidences sentenced her to life imprisonment.

However, Mamta got interim bail in order to support her mentally challenged child.

Later she appealed against the district court's decision at the high court but due to limited legal support she represented herself.

Her arguments in the court piqued public interest after she said that ‘thermal burns and electric burns can appear deceptively similar’.

She claimed that only a proper chemical analysis could establish their difference, which made the judge to ask ‘Are you a chemistry professor? To which she replied ‘Yes’.