RAJNESH TANDON Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, Rajnesh Tandon, has preferred this criminal appeal, on grant of leave, questioning the correctness of the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana dated 26-2-1992 made in Criminal Appeal No. 311-SB of 1989 dismissing the appeal and confirming the judgment of the trial court convicting the appellant under Section 304-B IPC and sentencing him to 7 years' rigorous imprisonment and also imposing a fine of Rs. 20,000 with the usual default clause.

(2.) The appellant is none other than the husband of the deceased-Anita who was aged 24 at the time of her death. In respect of the death of the deceased-Anita, this appellant, his father, mother and sister-Ashu were put up for trial for offences punishable under Sections 304-B, 498-A and 306 IPC. It is not in dispute that during the pendency of the case before the trial court, the father and mother of the appellant committed suicide. Therefore, the trial went on only as against the appellant and his sister Ashu. The trial court acquitted Ashu but convicted the appellant only for the offence under Section 304-B IPC and acquitted the appellant of the other charges under Sections 498-A and 306 IPC. The factual matrix of the case which led to the filing of this appeal can be stated as follows.

(3.) The appellant married the deceased-Anita who was a double graduate on 24-10-1987. After the marriage, admittedly both of them were leading a very happy conjugal relationship and in fact they had gone for honeymoon to Kashmir. At the time of the incident in question, Anita was pregnant by fourteen weeks. While it was so, Anita is said to have committed suicide on 24-2-1988 in her marital home in which the four persons who were arrayed as accused were living with the deceased. It is positively established that the deceased-Anita died by consuming poison, namely, Aluminium Phosphate which is usually used as rat poison and insecticide. The cause of death is spoken to by PW 1, the Medical Officer who conducted the post-mortem on the dead body of the deceased. On receipt of the information of this incident, PW 15, the Sub-Inspector of Police registered a case on the basis of a complaint given by the father of the girl PW 4, held inquest over the dead body of the deceased, examined the relevant witnesses and sent the dead body for post-mortem. During the course of the investigation a letter marked as Ext. D-G was seized from the scene house and that the said letter is characterised as a suicide note and said to have been left by the deceased herself. On completion of the investigation, the Inspector of Police filed the challan.