SHYAM BABU Vs. STATE OF U. P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Appeal arises out of judgment and order of conviction and sentence dtd. 27/4/2006, passed by the Additional Session Judge, Fast Track Court No.2, Fatehpur in Session Trial No. 72 of 2004 arising out of Case Crime No.161 of 2003, whereby accused appellant no.1 Shyam Babu, appellant no.2 Suresh @ Dhandhu and appellant no.3 Lalli @ Kalawati have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment under Sec. 304B IPC and have also been convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment under Sec. 498A IPC with a fine of Rs.1,000.00 and in default of fine they have to undergo one year additional imprisonment. They have also been convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment under Sec. 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act with a fine of Rs.2,000.00 and in default of fine they have to undergo one year additional imprisonment. All the sentences are directed to run concurrently.

(2.) Prosecution case, in brief, is that deceased Rupa Devi got married to the accused appellant no.1 on 20/4/2003. On 28/8/2003 the first informant (PW-1), who happens to be the father of the deceased, received an information that the deceased has been killed by the accused appellants by hanging as he had failed to meet the dowry demand. The incident is of 28/8/2003 and a written report scribed by one Ashok Kumar was given on 29/8/2003 on the basis of which a First Information Report was registered as Case Crime No.161 of 2003 under Ss. 498A, 304B IPC and 3/4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, Police Station Thariyaon, District Fatehpur.

(3.) After registering FIR the Investigating Officer came on spot and an inquest was conducted in the presence of inquest witnesses as also in the presence of Naib Tahsildar. The dead body of deceased was found in the house of accused appellant no.1. In the opinion of inquest witnesses the death of deceased was caused on account of hanging as also on account of injuries and, therefore, postmortem was required to be conducted to ascertain the cause of death. The dead body was accordingly sealed and sent to mortuary where the postmortem was conducted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta (PW-3). In the postmortem report following injuries have been found on the deceased and cause of death has been ascertained as asphyxia as a result of ante-mortem strangulation:-