The widow of Sougat Mukherjee, falsely accused of murder, is urging the Indian PM to support her family's lawsuit against Scottish authorities. She claims her husband's life was ruined by the wrongful accusation.
Key points
Sougat Mukherjee was falsely accused of murder in 1997.
His widow, Sapna, seeks to sue Scottish authorities.
She claims her husband's life was irreversibly damaged.
Police Scotland does not comment on ongoing legal matters.
The Crown Office reviews cases based on evidence.
Mentioned in this story
Sougat MukherjeeSapna MukherjeeTracey WildePolice ScotlandCrown Office and Procurator Fiscal ServiceIndian Prime Minister
The widow of a businessman who was falsely accused of a 1997 murder has urged the Indian prime minister to back her family's bid to sue the Scottish authorities.
Sougat Mukherjee was 44 when he died in Mumbai in 2023 - almost four years after Tracey Wilde's real killer was brought to justice in Glasgow.
Sougat's wife Sapna said her husband's life was "irreversibly destroyed" after being labelled a suspect and is seeking compensation and an Indian government inquiry into the circumstances.
Police Scotland said it did not comment on legal proceedings. Scottish prosecutors previously said they gave careful consideration to any reports of alleged criminal conduct which were submitted by police.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said action was taken if there was sufficient evidence of a crime, and that cases were kept under review.
Sapna, 45, said her husband had a successful career when he was told in 2014 that he was a wanted man on the other side of the world.
In the weeks that followed, the father-of-three's life imploded as he became involved in a protracted extradition battle.
Sougat's name was eventually cleared after a DNA breakthrough but his family say he never recovered from the stigma.
Sapna has now appealed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to back her bid to sue Police Scotland and the COPFS.
Sapna told BBC Scotland News her husband suffered from severe clinical depression as a result of being labelled a murder suspect.
He died on 17 January 2023 from acute liver cirrhosis.
She said: "The world needs to know that an innocent man's life was completely and irreversibly destroyed, and that his family is still suffering the consequences today."
Tracey Wilde was 21 when she was choked to death at her flat in Barmulloch, Glasgow, on 24 November 1997.
The body of the mother-of-one, who had been working as a prostitute, was discovered the following day.
At the time Sougat was a 19-year-old student at Glasgow Nautical College, which is is now City of Glasgow College.
He had arrived in Scotland in the autumn of 1996. Three months after Tracey was found dead, he dropped out of college and flew home to India.
Sougat married Sapna and started a new university course in Chennai.
He went on to work in sales and business development and travelled widely with his work, including to the US, United Arab Emirates and Greece.
That was until October 2014, when local police in India informed Sougat that he was a suspect in an unsolved murder in Glasgow.
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The following month he was named as a suspect and pictured in a report in the Sunday Mail newspaper.
CCTV stills featuring a mystery man walking along the street with his arm round Tracey were also published.
Sapna said the accusation "broke him completely" and that she had watched helplessly as the man she loved "slowly slipped away".
She said: "He felt he had become a burden on our family, as I was the sole earning member supporting three growing children and his medical expenses throughout those five devastating years.
"His parents exhausted every penny they had trying to save him physically and mentally from the tsunami of emotional trauma from a botched investigation."
In the summer of 2018, Sougat discovered there had been an arrest through a news notification on Google.
Zhi Min Chen had provided officers with a DNA sample after he was taken into custody following an assault in the Cowcaddens area of Glasgow.
It matched the forensic profile found in Wylde's flat more than 20 years earlier.
Chinese-born Chen, 44, admitted the crime in April 2019 and was later jailed for at least 20 years.
The judge, Lord Arthurson, told him: "You committed a brutal, cowardly and murderous attack on a vulnerable young woman in her own home."
Speaking outside the High Court in Glasgow afterwards Wylde's sister, Bernadette McCash, described the sentence as "a slap in the face".
She told reporters: "I don't feel it is enough time. As a family we are really disappointed in the sentence.
"He ran for longer (than 20 years). He hid for longer."
Chen appealed his sentence and it was later cut to 16 years.
Sougat told BBC Scotland News in 2019 that the initial allegations against him had "shocked me to the core".
He said he believed the case against him had been based on his premature departure from Glasgow and CCTV evidence, and that his family had been "shattered" by the allegations.
He also said his thoughts were with Wylde's loved ones and that he was deeply sorry for their loss.
On 1 May 2019, Sougat was officially exonerated by India's Ministry of External Affairs.
The shadow of suspicion no longer hung over him but Sapna described the damage as "total and irreversible".
She has now written to the Indian prime minister to highlight the family's plight.
In the letter, seen by BBC Scotland News, the sales manager says the ordeal took a heavy toll on the couple and their children Sreshtha, now 21, Shlok, 18, and 16-year-old Shreya.
She said: "I write to you today with a broken heart, an empty home, and an urgent plea for justice, not only for my family but for every Indian citizen who may be wrongly targeted in a foreign criminal investigation without adequate diplomatic protection."
Sapna said her husband was "branded a fugitive" and "became unemployable" after the accusation became public.
She said the family were "forced out" of their rented home as neighbours refused to live near an accused murderer, and that their children were ostracised and isolated.
Sapna said Sougat became financially reliant on his parents and in-laws, who had now exhausted their savings and were contemplating selling their homes.
She said her husband became dependent on alcohol and "descended into severe clinical depression, consumed by shame and hopelessness".
During this time Sapna was the family's sole breadwinner.
She said: "He died as he feared he would - having lost everything, through no fault of his own."
Sapna also questioned why it took four years to exonerate Sougat when his DNA sample did not match the profile found at the crime scene.
She has asked the Indian government to support the family's bid for financial compensation from the Scottish authorities.
Sapna is also calling on the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to lead a formal inquiry into how Sougat came to be labelled a murder suspect.
"My husband was an innocent man," she said.
"He committed no crime. He harmed no-one. He co-operated with authorities. He trusted the system.
"And the system killed him - slowly, painfully, and completely."
Police Scotland said it did not comment on legal proceedings.
The Crown Office said it had nothing to add to its statement in 2019, when it said careful consideration was given to reports submitted by the police.
"Action will be taken if the reports contain sufficient evidence of a crime and it is in the public interest to do so," it said.
"It is the duty of the Crown to keep cases under review and following full consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, Crown Counsel instructed that there should be no further proceedings against Sougat Mukherjee."
The Indian Ministry of Exterior Affairs has also been approached for comment.
