RAJENDRA Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, who are seven in number, have preferred this writ petition for issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the F.I.R. dated 14.11.2004 in Case Crime No. 516 of 2004, under Sections 304-B/307 I.P.C. of Police Station Deoband, District Saharanpur, Annexure No. 1 to the writ petition. Application has also been made to stay the arrest of the petitioners in pursuance of the impugned F.I.R. during the pendency of the writ petition.

(2.) The F.I.R. has been lodged by respondent No.3-father of the deceased Smt. Reena who was married to petitioner No. 1 Rajendra about 1-1/2 years before the incident. As per the F.I.R., the informant had performed a decent marriage, meeting the demands of the petitioners by giving double bed, T.V., furniture, etc. in dowry. Cash had also been given. Even a motor-cycle had been purchased and given on the demand of the bridegroom. After the performance of the marriage, the petitioners harassed and pestered the deceased over further demand of Rs. 51,000/- and started assaulting and treating her with cruelty. A son was born to the deceased. Rs. 50,000/- were demanded by the petitioners as Chhuchhak as per the F.I.R. 8 or 9 days before the lodging of the F.I.R., the petitioners burnt the victim. She was treated in Meerut Medical College but died on 13.11.2004. Without any information to him, the petitioners cremated her also. When he (informant) went to the petitioners with some relatives, the petitioner Nos. I and 7, opened shots and trained firearms on them with threats that he and others on his side would be shot dead, if they dared to go to the police. It is this F.I.R. lodged by the father of the deceased at the .concerned police station on 14.11.2004 at 9.05 P.M. which is in question. The petitioners are the husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law of the deceased including three sisters and one brother of the husband of the deceased.

(3.) The contentions of the peti-tioners, as per the averments made in the writ petition, are that Reena was married to petitioner No. 1 Rajendra on 5.3.2003. She allegedly caught fire in the kitchen on 2.11.2004 at about 9.00 P.M., when she had to boil milk for the child on gas stove. For this purpose, she opened the gas without having a match stick or match box in hand to light the gas immediately it was opened by her. The match box was placed at some distance. She went to pick up the match box and after that she rubbed the match stick with the match box, but in the meantime lot of gas had emitted which caught fire of which Reena also became the victim. Immediately after the incident, the husband, mother-in-law and father-in-law of the deceased took her to Muzaffar Nagar, the nearest city from Deoband, to a private hospital of Dr. Pradeep Singhal, who suggested that she should be taken to the Meerut Medical College. She was accordingly taken there, reaching at about 2.30 A.M. and was admitted in emergency ward. She was treated there. She had suffered 80 per cent bum injuries. Her statement in the evening of 3.11.2004 was also recorded by the Magistrate in which she stated as to how she caught fire and got burn injuries. She died in between 12/13.11.2004 and the post-mortem was conducted on 13.11.2004 at about 5.00 P.M. The petitioners have been falsely implicated. Generalized allegations have been made in the F.I.R. and all the family members have been roped in.