India, June 19 -- The Bombay high court has refused to commute the conviction of Ambadas Aaretta from murder to that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder after noting that he had acted in a cruel manner by setting his wife ablaze and preventing others from helping her.

"In the present case, after setting Pushpa (the convict's wife) on fire, the appellant (Aaretta) took the children out of the house and latched the door from outside while Pushpa was still burning inside. He prevented anybody else from helping Pushpa," said the division bench of justices Sarang Kotwal and Shyam Chandak. "He had thrown kerosene on her and had set her on fire. All this conduct is definitely cruel and he had taken undue advantage of the vulnerability ...