PREMWATI Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE accused/petitioner is one of the two charged with offences Under Sections 304-B and 306, Indian Penal Code. The two accused are respectively mother-in-law and the husband of the unfortunate bride Smt. Suneeta, who has died of poisoning within two years of the date of her marriage.

(2.) THE sole contention raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the. charges Under Sections 304-B and 306, Indian Penal Code are contradictory with each other; the two cannot be tried at a time; and that a charge Under Section 304-B, Indian Penal Code cannot be framed when the allegation is that the victim had committed suicide. In short, it is submitted that charge Under Section 306, Indian Penal Code having been framed, the charge Under Section 304-B, Indian Penal Code was prima facie misconceived and hence is liable to be quashed.

(3.) THE prosecution alleges and there is material available in the challan papers pointing out to the fact that the bride was subjected to continued ill-treatment amounting to cruelty and harassment in connection with demand for dowry and that she died an unnatural death, the cause being poisoning. The charge Under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code has been rightly framed.