HEMRAJ Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPELLANTS Hemraj and Subhadrabai have been convicted under Sections 498-A and 306, I. P. C. , and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years, ten years, and two years respectively. They have also been sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, Rs. 5,000/-, and Rs. 5,000/- each for these offences. The substantive sentences have been ordered to run consecutively.

(2.) DECEASED Purnabai was married to appellant Hemraj about three years before her death. Her dead body was recovered from the well behind the house of the accused in village Pusli on 12. 11. 1997. Appellant Subhadrabai is her mother-in-law. Purnabai lived in the house of her husband for about an year from the date of her marriage and then she was with her parents in village Dharni for about two years. She had come to the house of her husband 15 days before her death as his grand-mother had died. Sodhu (P. W. 6) is father, Dudhnath (P. W. 11) is brother and Phulwati (P. W. 5) is mother's sister of the deceased.

(3.) THE prosecution case is that the appellants were treating Purnabai with cruelty. They were demanding a motor cycle as dowry. The father of the deceased was not in a position to fulfil this demand. Purnabai was being beaten by her husband and mother-in-law. She was not being given proper food and she was made to sleep in the verandah of the house. She was being harassed so much that she committed suicide by jumping into the well.