KAMLA RANI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal, preferred by the appellants Under tion 374(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as Cr.P.C.), is directed against the judgment and order dated 19.10.1994 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Roorkee in Sessions Trial No. 323 of 1989, State v. Smt. Kamla Rani and Anr., whereby each of the appellants/accused, viz., Kamla Rani and Jagdishwar Prasad have been convicted under Section 304B & 498A of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, IPC) and each of them has been sentenced to R.I. for 10 years Under Section 304B IPC, but no separate sentence was awarded to the accused appellants Under Section 498A IPC. However, the appellants accused were acquitted of the charges of offence punishable Under Section 306 IPC.

(2.) APPELLANT No. 1 Smt. Kamla Rani died during the pendency of this appeal. Hence, appeal of Smt. Kamla Rani stood abated by the order dated 16.2.2010 passed by this Court.

(3.) THEREAFTER on 2.4.1987 at 8.30 pm, PW1 Laxmi Chand lodged an FIR Ex. Ka -1 with PS Gangnahar, Roorkee with the averments that the marriage of his daughter Kamlesh @ Simmi (the victim) was solemnized with the present accused appellant Jagdishwar Prasad on 5.10.1986 at Roorkee and he had given dowry commensurate with his status. Jagdishwar Prasad had a cycle repair shop at Roorkee. After the marriage, Jagdishwar Prasad and his parents started pressurizing his daughter Kamlesh @ Simmi to bring money from her father so that the present accused appellant may start some fine business. The daughter of the complainant told him about this fact in December, 1986. The complainant shown his inability to fulfill the said demand pleading poorness. Thereafter his daughter Kamlesh @ Simmi was being started harassed by her husband (present accused appellant) and her in -laws. On 24.3.1987, his daughter again came to his house and said to the complainant that the accused appellant Jagdishwar Prasad and his parents had stepped up the pressure on her to anyhow bring Rs. 50,000/ - for the business and his daughter asked him to somehow manage the said amount. On this, the complainant went to the house of the accused appellant and told him that he being a very poor person could not arrange the said money for his business. On 28.3.1987 at about 8 pm, the present accused appellant came to him and told that his daughter was ill and asked him to proceed immediately. On this he and his wife Smt. Dayawanti (PW2) immediately reached at the place of occurrence where they saw that their daughter Kamlesh @ Simmi, who was pregnant at that time, was lying unconscious and parents of Jagdishwar Prasad and one Ishwar Dayal Agarwal and a Compounder Soni were forcibly making her engulf something in a glass. When the complainant asked as to what had happened, then the accused appellant Jagdishwar Prasad and his parents told him that his daughter had consumed something and become unconscious. Her condition was deteriorating. The complainant and his wife Smt. Dayawanti (PW2) immediately brought her to the hospital on a rickshaw and got her admitted. Ishwar Dayal Agarwal and the Compounder had already reached at the hospital as they came there on a scooter. After half an hour, his daughter Kamlesh @ Simmi expired in the hospital. The complainant alleged that her daughter was killed by the accused appellant and his parents by giving her some poisonous substance. At about 11.30 pm on the date of incident, the complainant was brought at the police station by Iswar Dayal Agarwal, who told there his deceased daughter had consumed rat poison. When the complainant tried to lodge the report, Iswar Dayal Agarwal asked him not to lodge the report as he already had lodged the report.