GANGABHAVANI Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal revi-sion Case arises out of the judgment of ac-quittal dated 30.4.2001 in C.C.No.48 of 2000 on the file of the Court of Special Mobile Magistrate, Kakinada whereunder the trial Court, on finding the sole accused not guilty for the offence under Section 498A I.P.C., acquitted him under sub-section (1) of 248 Cr.P.C.

(2.) The marriage between the revision petitioner/rfe facto complainant and the ac-cused was performed in the year 1986 at Unduru village of Samalkot Mandal of East Godavari District. At the time of their mar-riage, the de facto complainant was given Ac.200cs of land towards pasupukumkuma, other articles worth Rs. 10,000 and an amount of Rs. 5,000 towards Adapaduchu-lanchanams; that thereafter, they lived hap-pily as wife and husband and that they were also blessed with a female child; that there-after, the accused started harassing the de facto complainant to bring additional dow-ry from her parents and on some occasions, she has complied with his demand; that he developed vices like having extra marital relation with another woman and coming home late in the night and when questioned, he used to scold her saying that he would have received more dowry if' e married another woman; that the accused had no love and affection towards their daughter and that the de facto complainant silently bore the harassment to safeguard their fam-ily prestige. However, the accused beat her mercilessly and necked her out of their matrimonial home along with her daughter to bring additional dowry directing her to come to him with money and that three years thereafter, she informed herparents about the incident, who placed the matter before PW5 village elder but the accused did not appear before him. However, his father appeared and assured PW5 that he would convince his accused son and see that the couple would live together. It is found in the evidence of PW5 that later, the accused also appeared before him and promised him that he would bring back his wife to his marital fold; that since the accused as well as his father failed to take the de facto complain-ant to her matrimonial home as promised by them to PW5, the de facto complainant preferred Ex.PI complaint before Samalkot Police against the accused for the offence under Section 498A I.P.C., being unable to bear the acts of cruelty and torture at the hands of the accused and since there was no change in his attitude.

(3.) The Prosecution examined PWs 1 to 9 and got marked Exs.Pl to P3 on its behalf. Exs. XI to X5 were marked as Court docu-ments. On the other hand, DW1 was exam-ined and Ex. Dl portion of 161 Cr.P.C. state-ment of PW4 and Exs. D2 to D5 inland let-ters and Exs.D6 to D8 post cards were marked on behalf of the defence.