DASHARATH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has filed this appeal under Section 374 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code being aggrieved by the judgment and order of sentence passed in Sessions Case No. 298/2005 by the Principal Sessions Judge at Gulbarga dated 01.09.2006 wherein he has been convicted under Section 235(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the offences punishable under Section 498A, 504 and 302 of IPC and has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a term of 3 years and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/-, in default to undergo simple imprisonment for one month for the offence punishable under Section 498A of IPC, to undergo imprisonment for a period of one year for the offence punishable under Section 504 of IPC and life imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/-, in default simple imprisonment for six months for the offence punishable under Section 302 of IPC.

(2.) The Mahagon police station, Gulbarga filed charge sheet against the appellant herein for the offences punishable under Sections 498A, 504 and 302 of IPC. According to the case of the prosecution, the accused/appellant had married one Sridevi daughter of Aiylabai and Arjun about 3 years back and the husband and wife lived at Kallabennur village happily for about 6 to 7 months and thereafter appellant started suspecting her fidelity and was assaulting her. It is the further case of the prosecution that deceased Sridevi used to tell her grievance before her parents and many a times her parents had advised the appellant not to ill treat their daughter, however, the ill treatment continued. In the meanwhile, Sridevi gave birth to a daughter one year after the marriage. Even after giving birth to female child, appellant continued the ill treatment and harassment. On account of the intervention of the maternal uncle of the appellant by name Chandrayya and Laxmi Bai of Kurikota village, Sridevi was sent along with the appellant and they lived in the house of Chandrayya for some time. Suddenly the parents of Sridevi learnt that she was admitted to the Government Hospital, Gulbarga after sustaining bum injuries. When they went to the hospital, they saw their daughter with bum injuries all over the body and at that time it was informed to them by their daughter that she had expressed on the early morning of 19.8.2005 to her husband to send her to her native place to tie Rakhi to her brother. Appellant, suspecting that his wife is going to meet her paramour, poured kerosene and set fire to her at about 8.00 A.M. Sridevi succumbed to the burn injuries on 20.8.2005. On the strength of the statement given by Sridevi the parents initially registered a case in Crime No. 73/2005 for the offences punishable under Section 498A, 504 and 307 of IPC and after the death of Sridevi police took up further investigation for the offence committed under Section 302 of IPC also. After conducting inquest proceedings all over the dead body and after postmortem examination the investigating officer visited the place of occurrence, inspected the spot and seized the incriminating articles. He also recorded statement of witnesses and collected oral and documentary evidence and arrested the accused. The appellant was produced before the Magistrate and charge sheet was also filed. The appellant was injudicial custody from the date of arrest till the judgment of the Trial Court and he continues to be in jail.

(3.) The Magistrate taking cognizance of the offence registered the case in C.C. No. 2372/2005 and committed the case to the Sessions Court.