BIJA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal is directed against the judgment and order of conviction and sentence recorded by the Additional Sessions Judge-I, Kaithal dated May 17, 2001 in Sessions Trial No. 52 of 1999 and confirmed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana on July 6, 2006 in Criminal Appeal No. 435-DB of 2003. By the aforesaid orders, all the appellants were convicted for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and ordered to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay fine of Rs.2000/- by each of them. Default sentence was also ordered.

(2.) The case of the prosecution was that Smt. Santro (deceased) was the daughter of PW2-Lakhmi Chand. Lakhmi Chand was having another daughter named Shero. Both the sisters (daughters of Lakhmi Chand) were married to two sons of Bija-accused No.1. Whereas deceased Santro married to accused No.2 Raghbir Singh, Shero (sister of deceased Santro) married to Subhash Singh, another son of Bija-accused No.1 and brother of Raghbir Singh-accused No.2. According to the prosecution, though the marriage of both the sisters was solemnized in 1988, deceased Santro was unhappy at her matrimonial home. It was alleged that accused Raghbir Singh-husband of Santro was not happy with his wife. Santro was not beautiful, she had not brought sufficient dowry with her and also that she could not conceive and bear a child in spite of the fact that substantial period of about 7-8 years after marriage had elapsed. In view of the above facts, accused Raghbir Singh became almost indifferent to Santro and nearly abandoned her. The Panchayat was informed and several meetings were held and ultimately, due to intervention of the Panchayat, after about ten years of the marriage and 5-6 months prior to the incident which took place in May, 1998, Santro again got married to Jagdish-accused No.3 (younger brother of Raghbir Singh) who was bachelor at the relevant time, by exchanging garlands (Jaimala). It was the case of the prosecution that the accused were not in favour of the second marriage of Santro with Jagdish, but they had to agree and the marriage was performed due to intervention and pressure by the Panchayat. That was said to be the motive on the part of the accused for causing death of deceased Santro.

(3.) According to the prosecution version, in the night intervening May 1st and 2nd, 1998, Santro died in the house of her in-laws. The allegation was that, all the four accused, namely, Jagdish-husband of Santro, Raghbir Singh-former husband of Santro, Bija and Sona Devi father-in-law and mother-in-law respectively of Santro caused her death by closing her mouth and nose and by smothering her.