NARI RAM AND KALAWATI Vs. STATE OF UTTRAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Nari Ram (A1, husband of the deceased), Mr. Chanchal Ram (A2, father-in-law of the deceased) and Smt. Kalalwati (A3, mother-in-law of the deceased) were tried for the offences under Section 498-A and 306 IPC in Sessions Trial No. 53/1999. Trial culminated into the acquittal of A2, while A1 and A3 were found guilty for the said offences.

(2.) They have appropriately been sentenced by the learned Trial Court on 01.03.2004. The trial pertains to the Revenue Circle Badav, Tehsil and District Pithoragarh. Shorn of unnecessary details, the facts as emerging out from the FIR are that the deceased Leela Devi @ Guddi Devi was wedded with A1 three years before, she lost her life in her matrimonial village. She committed suicide on 04.02.1999 at some outskirts of the village hanging her body from the branch of a tree with some rope. Her body was detected on 05.02.1999 in the morning. The report was given by one villager Mr. Ganesh Ram to the Patwari Circle.

(3.) The inquest report was prepared on 05.02.1999 at 3 P.M. in presence of the concerned Patwari. The entire yellowish/silver ornaments, which were on the dead body, were entrusted to her husband in presence of all the villagers including some persons from the parental home of the deceased. Smt. Leela Devi was got married by her widow mother, a very poor lady as is reflected from the FIR. She organized the marriage somehow by disposing his movable and immovable property as the deceased had already lost her father. FIR, handed over on 06.02.1999, could be reduced into writing only on 07.02.1999 after passing through the hierarchy of the Revenue Officers. The investigation culminated into submission of the chargesheet against all the three accused persons for the said offences. Learned counsel for the appellants has argued that A1 was employed in some private job at Delhi and probably he was a domestic servant with some big man. So, he was not in a position to keep his wife along with him in Delhi and this was the reason of anguish and agony, which drove the deceased to commit the suicide.