Sydney resident Kulwinder Singh, accused of murdering his wife, Parwinder Kaur, by setting her alight, has been freed from custody after being granted bail on Friday, ABC reports.
37-year-old Kulwinder Singh was arrested in November, four years after Parwinder Kaur burned to death outside her home in December 2013.
On Friday, Singh’s lawyers argued he should be set free as all the fingerprints found on the cigarette lighter and the jerry can belonged to the victim, Parwinder Kaur, and not her husband.
The court also heard evidence given by another expert at a 2015 inquest, who said evidence from the jerry can was consistent with a self-pour.
Barrister Frank Santisi said, "there's nothing linking the accelerant to the accused".
Mr Singh has always claimed his wife’s death was her own doing.
“This was some act on her part that was miscalculated ... she passed away as a result of some misadventure on her part,” his lawyer Frank Santisi told the court, Nine News reports.
The lawyers also told the court Mr Singh needed inpatient psychiatric care in hospital.
Nine News reports forensic psychiatrist Dr Gerald Chew told the court “clinically, Mr Singh is suffering from a major depressive episode. He is at a very high risk of suicide.”
Magistrate Theo Tsavdardis said the Crown case is "inconsistent with the expert evidence".
He said the Crown case was “almost entirely circumstantial“, and based on the evidence before him at Parramatta local court, he granted bail to Mr Singh under strict conditions.
Ms Kaur died after suffering 90% burns to her body in December 2013.
Magistrate Tsavdardis said the death occurred against the backdrop of a lengthy period of marital disharmony and domestic violence.
The court heard neighbours described hearing a “a blood-curdling scream, a really high pitched scream .. a lady screaming for help.”
On the day she suffered her fatal injuries she told a triple-0 operator, "my husband nearly killed me".
The case returns to court in February.
