DEVINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is yet another case of unnatural death of a young lady about two years after the marriage. The name of the deceased is Neelam Kaur. The appellants are Devinder Singh, her husband. Swaran Singh, her father-in-law and Pritam Kaur, her mother-in-law. The trial court has held that Neelam Kaur died an unnatural death. Her dead body was found lying in the kitchen of the matrimonial home smeared with kerosene oil all over the body. A stove, a match box and a plastic can were also found near the body. According to the trial court, it is a case of suicide. The appellants were convicted for offence under Section 304B, IPC and were sentenced to imprisonment for ten years to the appellant No.1 and seven years each to appellant No.2 and appellant No.3. The High Court dismissed the appeal of the appellants and maintained the judgment of the trial Court regarding conviction and sentence of the accused persons.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that the deceased was being taunted and harassed on account of dowry related demands by the appellants which led her to taking her own life. The appellants have denied this allegation. The deceased left behind a son who was at the time of the incident aged about 15 months. Further it is established from medical evidence of P.W. 1 Dr. G.P.S. Bedi who conducted the post-mortem that she was about 12 weeks pregnant at the time of the incident. For a woman of that young age and having a small child of 15 months old and another in her womb, to take a step of taking her own life, needs great determination and suggests her life would have been made really difficult. She took the extreme step of ending her life because the behaviour of the accused persons must have become unbearable for her. The main ingredients of Section 304-B IPC are:

(3.) In the present case, all the above ingredients are satisfied except that there is argument about the last ingredient about cruelty or harassment in connection with demand for dowry. It is a case of death of a woman, caused by burns i.e. it is an unnatural death and the death has taken place within seven years of the marriage. Thus, the argument in the present appeal centers around only the last ingredient i.e. whether there were cruelty or harassment on account of demands for dowry.