KUREY RAM Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KUREY Ram and two others have filed the present appeal to challenge the conviction and sentence impose on them under Sections 307 and 498-A of the Indian Penal Code by the Additional Sessions Judge, Faridabad on 9.6.1988.

(2.) BRIEF facts of the case, which are necessary for the disposal of the present appeal, in which the parties, I am told have, after the conviction, compromised the dispute and separated, and that Smt. Kesar Devi was married to Raj Kumar, appellant No. 2. After marriage, she was maltreated by him and had been given beatings on many occasions on the pretext that she had not brought adequate dowry with her. The complaints against Kurey Ram and Goal, appellants No. 1 and 3 respectively, who are the father-in-law and brother-in-law of Smt. Kesar Devi were similar in nature. It was further alleged that on 9.5.1987 at 7.00 A.M. when Smt. Kesar Devi was present in the house of her in-laws, her husband had beaten her up on the instigation of his father and brother. As a result of the danda blow inflicted on her, her mouth started bleeding and she became unconscious. After this, Kurey Ram and his two sons sprinkled kerosene oil on her and set her on fire. On account of the burning sensation, she regained consciousness and her sister-in-law tried to put off the fire. She again lost her consciousness and thereafter was removed to the Sharma Clinic. Someone from amongst her in-laws and neighbours informed her parents and they reached there in the evening, after two days and removed her to Safadarjang Hospital, Delhi, where she was treated. The details of this incident were narrated to the Doctor who was attending upon Smt. Kesar Devi during her hospitalisation in the Safdarjang Hospital and her statement to this effect was recorded by the SDM, South Delhi on the basis whereof, a formal F.I.R. was registered at Police State Sarai Khawaja. On completion of the investigation, a challan was put in against the three appellants before the Illaqa Magistrate, who had, on going through the papers, committed the case when he found that it was exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions.

(3.) DURING the pendency of the appeal, the appellants have brought on record the documents to show that Smt. Kesar Devi and Raj Kumar have sorted out their differences that arose between them during their marriage and obtained a decree of divorce by mutual consent. The material has also been placed on record to show that the criminal matter arising out of FIR No. 210 of 1988, which was registered in Police Station Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, at the behest of the wife, has also been compromised. In view of this, the appellants state that although the offences that are alleged to have been committed by them are not compoundable, it would be in the interest of everyone that after a lapse of 15 years, the appellants are not sent back to prison and while upholding the conviction, the sentence imposed upon them may be modified to that of the period already undergone by them. In support of this contention, they rely on the judgment reported as Pappu and others v. State of Punjab, AIR 2000 SC 3633 : 2000(1) RCR(Crl.) 479 (P&H).