B.N. SHASHIDHARA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD the learned counsel for the appellant and the learned State Public Prosecutor. The facts leading up to this case are as follows:

(2.) THE learned counsel for the appellant, while taking this court through the record, would point out that insofar as the demand and acceptance of dowry is concerned, the court below has acquitted both the accused and has found a case only against the present appellant for an offence punishable under Section 498A and Section 306 of the IPC. Insofar as the case of the prosecution that the appellant had meted out such cruelty to the deceased in order to drive her to commit suicide, is only on the basis of the evidence of PW -2, the father of the deceased and PW -4 who is the sister of the deceased. The learned counsel would also take this court to the relevant portion of the evidence of the said witness which is to the effect that when PW -2 on an occasion visited his daughter three months after the marriage, she had informed him that she was undergoing lot of suffering and she was being ill -treated and she was tolerating the same only because PW -2 had asked her to remain with her husband and his family. Beyond this, there is no indication of any specific act of cruelty meted out to the deceased by either Accused No. 1 or any of his family members. The learned counsel would also draw attention to the statements attributed to PW -4, which according to the prosecution would establish the case of cruelty as contemplated under Section 498A of IPC and would point out that the witness has spoken about the incident, where three months after the marriage of the deceased with Accused No. 1, when she and her father had visited her, she had noticed that there was a mark on the back of the deceased, which on enquiry, was found to have been by virtue of the accused No. 1 having struck the deceased with a belt and that it was not unusual for the accused to have ill -treated and physically abused the deceased on many occasions.