PARANAGOUDA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The judgment dtd. 20/7/2022 passed by High Court of Karnataka, Dharwad Bench dismissing the Criminal Appeal No.2847 of 2012 by affirming the judgment and order of sentence convicting the appellants passed by the Sessions Judge, Bagalkot in S.C. No.35 of 2011 dtd. 14/9/2012 for the offences punishable under Sec. 498A, 304B read with Sec. 34 of IPC and Sec. 3 and 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act (for short the DP Act) has been called in question.

(3.) The third daughter of the complainant (Shri Chandappa Gooli) named Akkamahadevi was married to second respondent/accused No.1 herein on 16/5/2010. A complaint came to be lodged by Sri Chandappa Gooli, father of the deceased on 20/12/2010 alleging thereunder that a dowry of Rs.31,000.00 and 1.5 tolas of gold was given at the time of marriage and additional dowry of Rs.50,000.00 and gold was demanded after two months of marriage. It was alleged that accused No.1 and his parents (appellants) gave physical and mental torture to his daughter and unable to bear the same she committed suicide by self-immolating namely by pouring kerosene and lighting fire. A dying declaration came to be recorded on 20/12/2010 and she died on 24/12/2010 due to burn injuries. Initially FIR came to be registered in Crime No.143 of 2010 for the offences punishable under Sec. 323, 498A read with Sec. 34 of IPC and 504 of IPC and Ss. 3 and 4 of the DP Act and on her death on 24/12/2010, Sec. 304B of IPC was added. On completion of investigation charge-sheet came to be filed and the jurisdictional sessions judge took cognizance of the offence alleged against the accused persons namely husband-accused No.1 (R-2 herein), appellant Nos 1 and 2 herein (accused No.2 and 3) and Smt. Ningamma accused No.4. On behalf of the prosecution, 32 witnesses were examined as PW-1 to PW-32 and they got marked 50 documents as Ex.P-1 to P-50 and three material objects as MO 1 to MO 3. On closure of prosecution side, the accused were examined and their statements also came to be recorded under sec. 313 of Cr.P.C. Accused No.4 (mother of accused No.3) had expired on 28/2/2012 and as such the proceedings against her stood abated. After hearing the learned Public Prosecutor and the learned advocates appearing for accused No. 1 to 3, they came to be convicted for the offences alleged against them. The learned Trial Judge had convicted the accused by relying upon the dying declaration (Ex.P.45) and sentenced them to undergo 7 years of simple imprisonment for the offence under Sec. 304B, five years of simple imprisonment for the offence under Sec. 3 of Dowry Prohibition Act, one year of simple imprisonment for the offence under Sec. 498A r/w Sec. 34 of IPC and one year of simple imprisonment for the offence under Sec. 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act with fine of Rs.1000.00 for each of the offences under Sec. 498A, 304B and Sec. 4 of DP Act for each of the accused and in default to undergo further simple imprisonment for a period of 3 months, and fine of Rs.31,000.00 each for the offence under Sec. 3 of DP Act with default sentence of three months. All sentences were ordered to run concurrently.