DHANJIBHAI PITAMBARDAS PARMAR Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal has been filed by the appellants under Section 374 of the Criminal Procedure Code against the judgment and order dated 17.09.1999 passed by learned Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad in Sessions Case No.433 of 1995, whereby the appellants-accused were convicted for the offence under Sections 498A and 306 of the Indian Penal Code (herein after referred to as IPC for short). By the impugned judgment, the appellants were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three years and ordered to pay Rs.1,000/- fine and in default of payment of fine, simple imprisonment for a period of three months was imposed for the offence under Section 498A of IPC. Whereas, for the offence under Section 306 of IPC, the appellants were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of five years and ordered to pay Rs.1,000/- fine and in default of payment of fine, simple imprisonment for a period of six months was imposed. Both the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

(2.) The short fact of the case is that on the day of incident i.e. on 12.09.1995, while the deceased was cooking, as she added more salt in the vegetables, the shak(food) had become salty due to which her husband got excited and picked up a quarrel with the deceased and thereafter, left for factory. Thereafter, the sister-inlaw and mother-in-law also picked up a quarrel with the deceased, due to which, after about 4-5 hours in the afternoon, the deceased poured kerosene over her person, set herself on fire, got burned and succumbed to injuries. Thereby, the appellants committed an offence punishable under Sections 498A and 306 of the Indian Penal Code. Therefore, the complaint was lodged with the police.

(3.) Investigation was carried out and charge-sheet came to be filed against the accused in the Court of learned Magistrate. As the case was sessions triable, the same was committed to the Court of Sessions. Thereafter, charge came to be framed and explained to the accused, to which the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried.